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RYEY CARPENTER. 







LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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THE 



Mother's and Kindergartner's 
Friend. 



BY 



HARVEY CARPENTER. 




Beneath the Kindergartner's care, 
The human slip shall flourish fair. 



BOSTON 
CUPPLES, UPHAM AND COMR 

©lU Corner Booftstore 

1884 




.03 



Copyright^ 
By Harvey Carpenter. 

1884. 



All Rights Reserved, 



ELECTROTYPED BY 

C. J. Peters and Son, Boston. 



PKEFAOB. 



At the suggestion of a friend, a Kindergart- 
ner, my attention was directed to tlie subject of 
compiling a little work on the system of Kin- 
dergarten. 

After proper deliberation, the arduous but in- 
teresting task of compilation — commenced and 
prosecuted under favorable auspices — has at 
last been accomplished ; and I now have the 
pleasure of presenting the result of my efforts 
in this, as I trust, attractive style. 

Although the work is not intended to be a 
treatise on the theory or practice of Kindergar- 
ten^ it, however, contains much that the author 
hopes will be regarded as important, not only to 
the Kindergartner, but also to parents and others 
who ought to be deeply interested in the welfare 
of the child. 

In the selection of quotations which appear 
so frequently in the work, the compiler has en- 
deavored to incorporate such as bear most di- 

3 



4 Preface. 

rectly upon the subjects with which they are 
connected, and to gather them from authors so 
well-known as to render the quotations worthy 
of the highest consideration. 

My thankful acknowledgments are due to 
Prof. Henry Gray, F.R.S., author of '' Descrip- 
tive and Surgical Anatomy," for valuable infor- 
mation respecting the brain and the organs of 
the senses ; to Henry Barnard, LL.D., author 
of "Kindergarten and Child-Culture," for ideas 
and facts which appear interwoven under the 
division entitled '-'- Facts in relation to Froebel ; " 
and also to any others whose words or ideas may 
be inadvertently expressed, but not designated 
as quotations. 

With the hope that this little work will be 
welcomed by those especially interested in a sys- 
tem of child-culture which is becoming so popu- 
lar in this country, and also hj all lovers of such 
reading as is calculated to inspire the mind with 
ennobling thoughts, it is most respectfully pre- 
sented to the public. 

The Author. 

May 1, 1884. 



conte:n^ts. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Human Mind 7 

II. Properties of Mind 16 

HI. The Intellect 17 

IV. The Brain 20 

V. Consciousness 26 

YI. Sensation and Sense 31 

VII. Perception 34 

VIII. The Organs of the Senses 37 

1. Of Smell 38 

2. Of Taste 40 

3. Of Hearing 43 

4. Of Touch 45 

5. Of Sight 48 

IX. Association 55 

X. Memory 58 

XI. Imagination . . * . 61 

XII. Conception 66 

XIH. Abstraction 68 

XIV. Reflection 70 

XV. Reason 73 

5 



6 



Contents. 



XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 

XXI. 

XXII. 



XXIII. 

XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 



Judgment 77 

Sensibility 79 

Emotions 81 

Esthetics . 86 

Conscience 89 

The Will 92 

The Child 93 

1. Infancy .93 

2. Childhood 104 

Kindergarten 108 

Advice to Kindergaktneks .... 138 

Noble Aspirations 141 

Facts in Relation to Fkoebel . . . 146 
Poetry 152 



THE MOTHER'S A^D KINDER- 
GARTNER'S FRIEND. 



CHAPTER L 

THE HUMAN MIND. 

A S man possesses an intricately constructed 
intellectual mechanism, some knowledge 
of the operations of which we would endeavor 
to acquire by an appropriate and systematic 
course of development, we will, without farther 
introductory remarks, proceed to the considera- 
tion of our subject by first answering the simple 
and yet profound question, — 

What is Mind? 

Mind is the iDvisible, immortal, and spiritual 
principle, or special endowment, by which the 
Creator has been pleased to exalt man above 
the other animals, and which so pre-eminently 
distinguishes him from the brute. 

7 



8 The Mother's and Kindergartner' s Friend. 

In the language of a distinguished critic, we 
inquire, — What is spirit ? What are our minds, 
the portion of spirit with which we are best 
acquainted ? The same writer remarks, — '' We 
observe certain phenomena. We cannot exphiin 
them into material causes. We therefore infer 
that there exists something which is not mate- 
rial, but of this something we have no idea. 
We can reason about it only by symbols. 
We use the word but we have no image of 
the thing." 

We can neither fully comprehend this mys- 
terious principle, nor even arrive at conclusions 
respecting its operations with so much satis- 
faction as we derive from the investigation 
of things that are tangible, or with wliose his- 
tory we have been somewliat familiar. 

Our powers of investigation are so limited, 
that we are unable to fathom the profound 
depths of Mental Science, or to approximate, 
in our researches, so far towards such a result 
as we would wish that our examination of this 
important subject could extend. 

The consciousness seems confused, as we 
try to get a realizing sense of the nature of 



The Human Mind. 9 

this living yet incomprehensible principle, 
which we have from childhood regarded as 
the Mind. 

Delsarte says, — as translated by Shaw, — 
*'Mind supposes soul and life. Soul is at the 
same time mind and life. In fine, life is in- 
herent in mind and soul." 

Though we know so little concerning the 
conditions and operations of the Human Mind, 
we have no reason to doubt the existence of 
this principle in connection with the body, or 
the omnipotence of Him who created all things, 
*' and without him was not any thing made that 
was made." 

For " God created man in his own image, 
and formed man of the dust of the ground, and 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and 
man became a living soul," — a physical body 
organized not only with vitality and animal 
instincts, but also with rational faculties, which 
characterize him as a human being. 

This self-active and indivisible principle is 
therefore the " living soul," which animates this 
mysterious organism called man. 

Channing says, — " He who possesses the 



10 The Mother's and Kindergartner' s Friends 

divine powers of the soul is a great being, be 
his place what it may." 

Creation's noblest work is man! 

Who blest with powers so much divine. 
Is ne'er to die, but ever can 
God's greater works in Heaven scan — 

Where beams of glory brighter shine. 

From what we have discovered, we are irre- 
sistibly led to the conclusion that Mind is in- 
finitely superior to matter ; for it is a principle 
emanating from the Divinity, w^hose influence 
constantly penetrates, pervades, and controls 
the operations of Mind and the physical 
machinery of the universe. 

Delsarte, in Shaw's translation, says, — ''The 
human body contains three organisms to trans- 
late the triple form of the soul. Man, the im- 
age of God, presents himself to us in three 
phases: the sensitive, intellectual, and moral. 
Man feels, thinks, and loves. In the sensitive 
state, the soul lives outside itself; it has rela- 
tions with the exterior world. In the intellect- 
ual state, the soul turns back upon itself, and 
the organism obeys this movement. In the 
moral or mystic state, the soul, enraptured with 



The Human Mind. 11 

God, enjoys perfect tranquillity and blessed- 
ness." Man thus endowed with physical, intel- 
lectual, and moral faculties, is capable, as the 
Creator intended that he should be, of great 
achievements, and of exerting a beneficial in- 
fluence in the world. 

He can, by the development of his physical 
and intellectual faculties, form his own plans, 
express his own thoughts, discharge many duties 
as a parent and a citizen, and command obe- 
dience of his fellowmen whenever and wherever 
there shall be a necessity for the exercise of his 
prerogatives. 

Again, man has the capacity for the develop- 
ment of his moral faculties, and through a right 
development of these powers, he will be im- 
pelled to self-activity by heavenly aspirations 
and a reverence for the character and attributes 
of God, and while he looks up, in a devout state 
of mind, to the celestial canopy, he will be 
led to exclaim, — ''The heavens declare the 
glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his 
handywork;" or expressing his thoughts in the 
words of another, he will saj^, — "In yon gilded 
canopy of heaven we see the broad aspect of 



12 The Mother^ s and Kindergartner^ s Friend, 

the universe, where each shining point presents 
us with a sun, and each sun with a system of 
worlds, where the Divinity reigns in all the 
grandeur of his attributes, where he peoples 
immensity with his wonders, and travels in the 
greatness of his strength through the dominions 
of one vast and unlimited monarchy." 

This life-giving principle, the Mind or Soul, is 
immortal, and has an identity or individuality 
of its own ; and it is not therefore subject to 
decay, destruction, and death, like things in the 
natural world, including even the body so 
wisely arranged as the fit tabernacle for the 
Soul; for the Scriptures declare, — '' Then shall 
the dust return to the earth as it was ; and the 
spirit shall return unto God who gave it." The 
operations of the Soul are not to cease at the 
dissolution of the body, but when released from 
these earthly impediments, it will rise and exist 
forever the same identical principle "clothed" 
with a spiritual body, but subject, however, to 
the condition of Him who, in the beginning, 
"breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; 
and man became a living soul," — a being en- 
dowed with the principle of immortality ; as ex- 



The Human Mind. 13 

pressed by the Apostle Paul, ^ here he says, — 
^*For we know that, if our earthly house of 
this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a build- 
ing of God, a house not made with hands, eter- 
nal in the heavens." 

A free translation from a very ancient Latin 
book lying before me, thus reads: — "It is cer- 
tain that this mortal body must return to dust, 
but that sleep will not be eternal." 

The Mind thus self-active and immortal, and 
comprising a variety of faculties, some of which 
we are about to consider, does indeed exalt 
man infinitely above • the other animals, and 
constitutes him a rational and accountable 
being. 

As man possesses a complex nature, animal, in- 
tellectual, and spiritual, his mental faculties are 
therefore more or less affected by his natural 
propensities, which incline him to seek gratifi- 
cation in worldly pleasures and self-indulgence, 
while the cultivation of his higher powers is so 
neglected that he falls into a state of indiffer- 
ence respecting those lofty aspirations which 
lead to ennobling and God-like activities. 

The mental faculties so harmoniously and 



14 The Mother s and Kindergartner^ s Friend, 

wonderfully arranged, were organized for some 
exalted j)urpose ; consequently, it is the dut}^ of 
man to attend to the cultivation of these facul- 
ties- — faculties which are capable by a progres- 
sive and systematic course of development, of 
receiving and understanding all that God makes 
it necessary for man to know while an inhabitant 
of earth. 

Such knowledge can be acquired, agreeably 
with the laws of mental phenomena, through 
an inward sense, and by sensations resulting 
from impressions made by external things 
through appropriate channels, the organs of 
the senses. 

We should therefore take the child at a very 
early age, even at or before the dawn of con- 
sciousness, and place it in the midst of such 
surroundings as shall lead it to take the initia- 
tory step in that progressive course of develop- 
ment which is to conduct the little one from 
simplicity to complexity, from the i^erceivable 
to the undiscovered, from the finite to the in- 
finite, from earth to Heaven. 

How rich and enduring Avill be the reward 
which not only invites but urges every one to 



The Human Mind. 15 

an immediate engagement in such a course of 
harmonious development of all the faculties as 
shall arouse and bring into successful operation 
the germs of power which God has implanted 
within the Human Mind. 



16 The Mother's and Kindergartner s Friend. 



CHAPTER IL 

PROPERTIES OF MIND. 

"T"N contemplating the various states of the 
Human Mind, authors of Mental Philosophy 
usually regard them under three aspects, the 
Intellectual, the Emotional, and the Willing, or 
the Intellect, the Sensibility, and the Will, 
although there is in reality but one intellectual 
structure, indivisible and indestructible. 

But it is not our purpose to go into the 
minute details of this profound subject, therefore 
we will give only a synopsis or general view of 
some of the more important properties and 
functions of the Mind, hoping thereby to aid 
those engaged in training the child; and we 
will, in conformity with our plan, arrange our 
subjects in the order consistent with the nature, 
growth, and development of the child's facul- 
ties. 



The Intellect. 17 



CHAPTER III. 

THE INTELLECT. 

n~^HE Intellect includes all that is adapted to 
the reception of knowledge, and knowledge 
is that which may be apprehended by the free 
operation of the perceptive faculty. 

The function of the Intellect is to perceive 
with certainty and clearly understand, or to 
know, — '' which," as President Porter says, 
''is to be certain of something." 

There are two sources of knowledge, one 
external, the other internal ; the former in- 
volves all that may be acquired through the 
influence of external objects, the latter embraces 
ideas formed by the operation of the mind upon 
itself, or the "mind's impression of its own 
acts." 

Locke supposes knowledge to originate in 
sensation, and that all the mind contains is sen- 



18 The Mothei^'^s and Kindergartner s Friend, 

sations ; he says, however, that in addition to 
knowledge derived from an external source, 
there is a knowledge by " the perception of the 
operations of our own minds within us, as it is 
employed about the ideas it has got ; which op- 
erations, when the soul comes to reflect on and 
consider, do furnish the understanding with an- 
other set of ideas, which could not be had from 
things without." 

A definition of Intellect, very pertinent in 
this connection, is given by Prof. L. P. Hickok, 
who says : '' All mental exercises, subservient to 
any form of knowing, and Avhich come clearly 
within the consciousness, are facts belonging to 
the intellect." 

" Thought," says Pittenger, "springs from the 
intellect, and acts upon the facts received from 
every source, retaining, arranging, and modify- 
ing them at will. Thought is the workman of 
the mind, and requires material upon which to 
labor." 

" Great minds with energetic thought, 
Wear out their shell of clay ; 
Yet at each crevice light is caught 
Till all is mental day." 



Tlie Intellect. 19 

The period when a child begins to exercise 
the power of thinking is very indefinite, for 
some are more precocious than others ; there- 
fore it is better, as a general thing, to watch the 
cliild, and arouse him to the exercise of think- 
ing at the most appropriate time. 

He must be trained gradually, and led along 
until he becomes accustomed to the exercise. 

AVhat is there in which we are all so deficient 
as the habit of earnest, patient, and systematic 
methods of reflection ? We ought to say in this 
connection that we regard the Kindergarten 
method as one of the very best for preparing 
the unfolding powers of the cliild to engage in 
the exercise of thinking, and especially of such 
thinking as will be called into operation by the 
more abstruse and philosophical subjects em- 
ployed for mental development in the schools. 



20 The Mother H and Kinder gartner's Friend. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE BRAIN. 

A LTHOUGH what we are to say respecting 
the Brain, may seem more appropriate to 
the preceding division of our subject, we will, 
however, under this head briefly consider some of 
the characteristics of this organism, so important 
as the seat of intellect and sensation. 

The Brain is located in the cranium or skull 
and it appears to be placed in that department 
of the human frame best adapted to its func- 
tions. 

It is composed in part of a graj^ and white 
substance, supplied with nerves, ganglia, and 
fibrous and cellular tissues, all of which are en- 
closed within the arachnoid membrane — a mem- 
brane connected with the dura mater, which dura 
mater is a membrane lining the cavity of the 
skull, serving as a protector to certain portions 



The Brain. 21 

of the brain, and united with all the cranial 
nerves arising from the brain and passing through 
the foramen at the base of the skull. 

The brain is divided into four principal parts: 
1. The cerebrum ; 2. the cerebellum ; 3. the 
pons Varolii ; 4. the medulla oblongata. 

1. The cerebrum includes the largest part of 
the brain, occupying quite a large portion of the 
cavity of the anterior and middle portions of the 
cranium. 

2. The cerebellum, or little brain, is located 
in the inferior occipital fossae, below the poste- 
rior lobes of the cerebrum ; and it is connected 
with the other three divisions of the brain by 
six bands, two connecting it to the cerebrum, 
two to the medulla oblongata, while the other 
two unite in forming the pons Varolii. 

3. The pons Varolii is the connection between 
the various sections of the brain, uniting with the 
cerebrum above, with the medulla oblongata be- 
low, and with the cerebellum behind. 

4. The medulla oblongata includes that part 
of the brain situated below the pons Varolii, and 
expanding into a prolonged continuance of the 
spinal cord. 



22 The Mother s and Klndergartner^ Friend. 

Tlie brain is composed of aqueous, albumi- 
nous, fatty, lactic, and phosphoric substances, 
about three-fourths of the composition being 
aqueous; and it increases very fast till about 
the seventh year of life, a little slower till the 
fifteenth or twentieth, less rapidly till the thir- 
tieth or fortieth, when it reaches its maximum, 
becoming heavier than that of any of the lower 
animals excepting the elephant and the whale. 

The average weight of a well-developed hu- 
man brain is in the male from fortj-three to fifty- 
six ounces, in extreme cases reaching even 
sixty-five ounces, and in the female from forty- 
one to forty-seven ounces, increasing in some 
cases to fifty-six ounces. 

We form an opinion in relation to the intel- 
lectual capacity by the size of the brain, in con- 
firmation of wliich we liave in Sliaw's transla- 
tion of Delsarte the following: ''Men of small 
brain habitually carr}" their heads high. The 
head is lowered in proportion to the quantity of 
intelligence." 

The Nervous tissue is composed chiefly of 
two different structures, the gray or vesicular^ 
and the white or fibrous. 



The Brain. 23 

It is in the former, as is generally supposed, 
tliat nervous impressions and impulses originate, 
and by the latter that they are conducted. 

The Xervous substance is also divided into 
two different systems. The first is connected 
directly with the great central mass enclosed in 
the skull and spine. This is called the cerehro- 
spinal system^ and is divided into the brain, the 
spinal cord, the cranial nerves, the spinal nerves, 
and the ganglia connected with both these classes 
of nerves. 

The second, called the sympathetic system^ is 
not directly connected with the brain or spinal 
cord, though it is so indirectly hj means of its 
numerous communications with the cranial and 
spinal nerves, all the cranial nerves being con- 
nected to some part of the surface of the brain. 

The brain thus constituted is connected, as 
w^e intimated in describing the position of the 
medulla oblongata, vrith the spinal cord; and 
the nervous substance, both in the brain and 
the spiual cord, is pervaded and preserved 
by a mesh-work of nervous fibres connecting 
the s[)inal cord w^itli the cerebrum through the 
medium of the medulla oblongata. 



24 The Mother^ s and Kindergartne/ s Friend. 

With regard to the central terminations of 
the nerves which are so arranged as to become 
the mysterious agents in mental phenomena, we 
will quote the opinions of several distinguished 
men. 

Schultze says, "In the present state of our 
knowledge, we are not in a position to assign its 
central origin, the sensorium, to any single primi- 
tive fibril of the nervous system, however cer- 
tainly may have descended the peripheral ter- 
minations of a great part of them." Dr. L. 
Clark says, " Most of the convolutions of folds 
of the brain consist of seven distinct layers or 
plaits of nervous substance, light at the outer 
edge, and growing darker as they approach the 
centre, all being interspersed v/ith nerve cells 
and nerve fibres, establishing an infinite number 
of communications between different parts of 
each convolution, between different convolu- 
tions, and between these and the central white 
substance." 

Dr. Sharpey also says that he has seen the 
ultimate fibres of the minute plexus of the sen- 
sory nerves come into close contact with the 
connective tissue-corpuscles, but has not been 



The Brain. 25 

able to trace any distinct connection between 
them. 

Prof. Henry Gray says that Frey has lately 
described and figured a large number of micro- 
scopic ganglia on the ' sub-mucous nervous 
plexus. 

Dr. Beale declares that even in those gan- 
glion-cells which appear either altogether desti- 
tute of processes, or unipola, numerous fibres 
can be seen proceeding out of them, if the 
proper re-agents be used and very high pow- 
ers employed. 



\ 
26 The Mothered and Kindergartner's Friend. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE CONSCIOUS]^ESS. 

A S there are cardinal virtues, so, we suppose, 

there are cardinal properties of mind; 

therefore, we will next consider Consciousness 

as an extremely important, if not the most 

important, of all human endowments. 

Although the operations of Consciousness 
immediately precede perception, it is not a 
faculty of the mind, but it is a light, as it were, 
whose rays are concentrated with such magnify- 
ing power that it easily recognizes what is tak- 
ing place in the mind ; and it is also able to lay 
hold of .a sensation, to determine its meaning, 
and to become familiar with its intrinsic im- 
portance. 

Some one has said that '' Consciousness is the 
light of all our seeing;" and President Porter 
also says, " Consciousness is briefly defined as 
the power by which the soul knows its own acts 



The Consciousness. 27 

and states." Again, Prof. Hickok says, " Con- 
sciousness reveals all that can be brought within 
it; and without it, nothing can appear — it is 
thus primitively conditional for all perception 
— but Avhile in it the mind sees all other 
things, there is no light higher than it, by 
which the mind can see Consciousness itself." 

Consciousness is not, like conscience, a 
faculty of the mind, subject to the control of 
tiie Will ; but it has the power of acting in- 
voluntarily, and can examine, discriminate, and 
pass judgment in relation to the qualities of 
sensations arising from an inward sense or from 
impressions made upon the mind by external 
objects. 

Kev. Dr. Mark Hopkins says, ''We would 
define Consciousness to be the knowledge by 
the mind of itself as the permanent and indivis- 
ible subject of its own operations. 

''This implies a knowledge of the operations, 
but leaves that knowledge to be given by its 
own specific faculty while Consciousness holds 
the whole in unity by a constant reference of 
the different acts and states ot mind to the 
individual self." 



28 The Mother^ s and Kindergartner^ s Frieyid. 

Consciousness is but the reflection of the 
mind's knowledge of itself or of its own opera- 
tions ; and it waits, if we may thus express it, 
for impressions to be made upon the mind by each 
faculty in its own appropriate way, and at the 
same time it is able to foresee, and, by an acute 
analysis of the various effects w^hich impressions 
are to make upon the mind, to arrive at correct 
decisions respecting such results. 

It is, therefore, the function of Consciousness 
to immediately comprehend all that may come 
within its scope, and, as it is from the nature of 
its office a pervasive principle, to exercise its 
own inherent and vitalizing influence in pervad- 
ing, and, as it were, sympathizing with all the 
mental faculties, so as to unite them in legiti- 
mate and harmonious action ; and this pervasive 
influence in connection with mental operations, 
is like the influence in nature, when in spring- 
time the sap ascends from the roots of the tree 
to the extremities of the most distant branches, 
causing them to bud and blossom, and thus to 
cheer the husbandman with the hope that in due 
time he will be rewarded with an nbnndant liar- 
vest of luscious fruit ; or, like the arterialized 



The Consciousness. 29 

blood coursing through the various channels of 
the human system, thereby giving beauty and 
activity to the physical structure of man. 

A vigorous Consciousness helps man to judge 
quickly respecting right and wrong, and aids 
him in the adoption of such principles of action 
as will operate in conformity with the law of 
God. 

We will illustrate our idea of Consciousness 
as follows : — 

We all admit that God is good, but how shall 
we become conscious of this fact, or what shall 
we do to get a realizing sense of what we admit ? 

Upon reflection we think of the way in which 
God has conducted us to the present time, — 
how we have had our birth in this land of civil 
and religious freedom, — how many advantages 
we have enjoyed for securing secular and relig- 
ious education, — what parental influences have 
moulded our characters and prepared us for 
usefulness. Such reflections make appropriate 
impressions upon our minds through an inward 
sense, and we become conscious of what God 
has done for us, and are led with Montgomery 
to exclaim, — 



30 The Mjtliers and K'.tidergartners Friend. 

**0 bless the Lord, my soul! 
His mercies bear in mind; 
Forget not :dl his benefits : 
The Lord to thee is kind." 

Consciousness may also be illustrated by an 
exercise familiar to the Kindergartner. 

We will give a ball and a cube to the pupil, 
requesting him to examine and compare them ; 
thus doing, he finds that the ball is rounds hav- 
ing but 07ie surface, and that this surface is 
curved^ and that the cube has twelve edges, 
eight corners, and six flat surfaces. 

By comparison and observation he discovers 
the difference between the ball and the cube, 
and this discovery makes an appropriate impres- 
sion upon his mind, and the sensation is trans- 
formed into a perception in the Consciousness, 
and he realizes that the cube has only such 
properties as are consistent with the struc- 
ture of the cube, and none compatible with 
the form of the ball. 

"Consciousness," as one says, "analyzes the 
various sensations, so that each separate part 
will be understood, and then links them together 
and makes each serve as a stepping-stone to what 
follows," in arriving at satisfactory results. 



Sensation and Sense. 31 



CHAPTER VI. 

SENSATION AND SENSE. 

"DROF. HICKOK defines Sensation as the 
identification of the reciprocal modifications 
of both the recipient organ and that which is 
received. 

According to his idea, the Sense, while it may 
be regarded under one condition as only a capac- 
ity for holding the elements of perceptions, — 
the sensations, — may, so far as it regards the 
intellectual process of bringing out the sensation 
to a clear perception, and the peculiarity of 
object so attained, embrace both the sensation 
and perception. 

" Sensation," says one, " is the connecting 
link between mind and matter, and can exist 
only where there is animal life ; hence, it must 
be found in man, in the dog, cat, horse, and ox, 
and not in wood, iron, stone, or clay." 



32 The Mother's and Kinder gartner' s Friend. 

Sensations may be the result of impressions 
made by external objects or by operations of 
the mind upon itself. 

If I am dazzled by the lightning or terrified 
by the thunder, I have only a sensation. 

Prof. Hickok says, '' The sensation will re- 
main in its primitive state until the spiritual 
intelligence brood over it, and construct it into 
a definite effect in the consciousness ; and this 
feeling that comes after the sensation, and by 
occasion of it through perception, is wholly in 
consciousness, and influences the mind as an 
intelligent motive." 

If an impression made by an external object 
result in no recognition by the mind of the 
object, the sensation will be known as an appro- 
priate sensation ; but if, by another operation of 
the mind, we get a knowledge of the object 
which causes the sensation, we have an appro- 
priate perception. 

Sir William Hamilton says, '' Sensation proper 
and perception proper invariably accompany 
each other." For example : " If," says Flem- 
ing, "I simply smell a rose, I have sensations; 
if I refer that smell to the external object 



Sensation and Sense. 33 

which occasioned it, I have a perception. Thus 
the former is merely feeling, without the idea 
of an object ; the latter is the mind's apprehen- 
sion of some external object as occasioning the 
feeling." 



34 The Mother^ 8 and Kindergartner' s Friend. 



CHAPTER VII. 

PERCEPTION. 

np^R. GEORGE MOORE says, ''Perception 
is a power of the soul which, while con- 
nected with the body, requires a certain ar- 
rangement of matter in organized forms fitted 
to the objects that through them become the 
cause of sensation, called organs of sense." 

Such organized forms as Dr. Moore has in 
mind the Creator has been pleased to confer 
upon man, and these forms are known as the 
organs of the senses, which have their central 
terminations in the brain, and which, having 
their peripheral terminations, through various 
ramifications of nervous fibres, so constituted 
that they become as keys upon which impres- 
sions by external objects are to be made, are 
the direct channels of communication between 
the soul and the outer world. 



Perception. 35 

There are two important principles involved 
in the science of Phrenology. 1. It admits 
that the brain is the organ of the mind; 2. That 
various operations are performed by different 
parts of the brain. 

This "organ of the mind," the brain, is con- 
stantly and mysteriously pervaded by a percep- 
tive principle of activity, and influences from 
without, as well as from within, are continually 
passing through some one of the organs of the 
senses to the brain, and through these opera- 
tions, influences or impressions are constantly 
resulting in sensations or elements of knowl- 
edge, or incentives to activity ; and at the 
same time '' the mind," as Dr. Guilmette says, 
"is the engineer, which presides, and directs, 
and controls at will the operations of the phys- 
ical machinery." 

The operation of the mind, in bringing the 
object or thing which causes the sensation un- 
derstandingly into the consciousness, is known 
as a mental phenomenon, which, being pro- 
duced by an impression made upon some one of 
the organs of the senses, receives, agreeably 
with its intrinsic merits, the name T)erceDtion • 



36 The Mothe/s and Ki7idergartner s Friend. 

and when this perception results from an im- 
pression made by an external object upon an 
organ of sense, the phenomenon which pre- 
cedes the perception '' is ascribed," as Professor 
Hickok saj^ ^'to outer nature as some quality 
of an external world, and perceived through an 
external sense ; and thus may all the facts of 
external perception be gathered, as inclusive of 
all the phenomena of human experience by 
sensible organs." 

Such a faculty for perception is not only able 
to recognize the sensation, but to perceive the 
cause which produced it, seizing, as it were, the 
sensation, analyzing it, and resolving it into 
a perception in the consciousness; and such 
power of perception, or rational endowment, 
becomes the dividing line between reason and 
instinct. 



The Organs of the Senses. 37 



CHAPTER VIIL 

THE OUGAXS OF THE SENSES. 

A LTHOUGH, as Professor T. C. Upham 
says, we cannot trace any physical con- 
nection between the image on the retina and 
the corresponding state of mind, we know that 
the mind is affected, and we are led to infer 
that the same may be said of the connection 
between impressions through any of the other 
organs of the senses and their corresponding 
states of mind. 

However mysterious may be the operations 
which result in mental states, we are to admit 
the fact that the organs of the senses are the 
medium through which man arrives at the per- 
ception or knowledge of external things. This 
is beautifully described by one where he says, 
*^ Wonderful are the things that surround us; 
greater are those within us. The external 



38 The Mother s and Kindergartner s Friend. 

is the outgrowth from the internal, the tan- 
gible universe a counterpart of the intan- 
gible, all to be comprehended through the five 
senses." 

The Organs of the Senses, — five in number, 
— arranged differently from the anatomical 
order, we give as follows : that of smell, of 
taste, of hearing, of touch, and of sight. 

No, L — The Organ of Smell. 

The organ, so appropriate both in structure 
and location for the perception of Smell, is the 
Nose. 

This is the simplest, and we consider it first 
' in order, of the organs of the senses ; and yet 
it sustains an important relation to the organ 
of taste, for it aids the latter in detecting any 
foreign or hurtful substances, and in forming 
correct ideas in relation to the quality of our 
daily food, and other articles which the appetite 
may crave. 

This organ has also its especial mucous mem- 
brane, called the pituitar}^ or secretory agent, 
which lines both the anterior and the posterior 
cavity of the Nose. 



The Organs of the Senses. 39 

This branch of the mucous membrane at the 
upper parts of the nasal cavities is supplied 
with epithelium^ — a cellular substance adapted 
to render the external surface of this membrane 
soft and pliable, and being highly sensitive, is 
very efficient in determining the quality of 
odors, as well as of food and other things as 
previously mentioned. 

The lower parts of these cavities are ciliated, 
or protected by hairs, wdiich not only prevent, 
as much as possible, dust and other hurtful 
substances from entering through these aper- 
tures, but also serve as channels through which 
the cold air may pass in breathing, and thereby 
be diverted from the passage leading directly 
to the lungs. 

The epithelium^ of which we have spoken, is 
free in its operations, and adequate to the rami- 
fications of the nerve fibres of the olfactory 
nerve, which nerve is the essential nerve be- 
longing to the organ of smell, and is connected 
with the upper portion of the septum or parti- 
tion between the nasal cavities. 

The olfactory nerve is a very important 
nerve, both in its structure and its position iu 



40 The Mother's and Kindergartner's Friend. 

the sensorium ; and hence it is very sensitive, 

as we will show by a few examples. 

*' Sweet odors in tlie sea-air strange 
Shall tell the homesick man of the shore." 

In Ovington's Voyage to Surat it is said, 
" We were pleased with the prospect of this 
island, because we had long been strangers to 
such a sight ; and it gratified us with the fra- 
grant smells which were wafted from the shore, 
from whence, at three leagues distance, we 
scented the odors of flowers and fresh herbs ; 
and, what is ver}^ observable, where, after a 
tedious stretch at sea, Ave had deemed ourselves 
to be near land by our observation and course, 
our smell in dark and mist)^ weather has out- 
done the acuteness of our sio-ht, and we have 
discovered land by the fresh smells before we 
discovered it with our eye." 

No, IL — The Organ of Taste. 

The organ which operates as the agent in 
producing the sense of Taste, is the Tongue. 

The Tongue is supplied with glands, mucous 
follicles, nervous fibres, arteries, veins, papillae, 
and other substances appropriate to its func- 



The Organs of the Senses. 41 

tion, all of which are inclosed within a branch 
of the mucous membrane — a membrane exten- 
sive in its connections with many parts of the 
human organism, and so sensitive in its nature 
that a slight irritation of one part is often felt 
in a remote part of the body. 

Papillae differing from those connected with 
the skin, of which we are liereafter to speak, 
and more prominent and variable in size, cover, 
as we will readily see by looking into the 
mouth, the greater part of the external surface 
of the tongue. 

This organ is not only constituted with pa- 
pillae, or little points, many of which are more 
than the ordinary size, but is supplied also with 
taste-corpuscles, which are cellular in structure 
and intimately connected with the extremities 
of nerve fibres which proceed from nerves ap- 
propriately belonging to the tongue, and known 
as nerves of sensation. 

With such an intricate mechanism as the 
organ of Taste, the sensations produced by 
tasting, eating, and drinking are immediately 
derived through the contact of this organ with 
external thinocs. 



42 The Mother^ s and Kindergartner s Friend. 

There is a lively sympathy between this organ 
and the organ of smell in their operations, for 
they are sensibly associated in the process of 
mastication. 

The important agents in sensation appropri- 
ate to the Tongue are two : the gustatory nerve, 
which is connected with the papillae at the fore- 
part and sides of the Tongue, and the liiigual 
branch of the glosso-pharyngeaU which is distrib- 
uted to the mucous membrane at the base and 
sides of the Tongue. 

Prof. Upham says, " The application of any 
sapid body to this organ (the Tongue) immedi- 
ately causes in it a change of affection ; and that 
is at once followed by a mental affection or a 
new state of the mind. 

" In this way we have the sensations and per- 
ceptions to which we give the names sweet, bit- 
ter, sour. 

'^ Whenever, therefore, we say of any bodies 
that they are sweet, bitter, sour, we mean to be 
understood to say that such bodies are fitted, in 
the constitution of things, to cause in the mind 
the sensations of sweetness, bitterness, and sour- 
ness ; or in other words, that they are the estab- 



The Organs of the Senses. 43 

lislied antecedents of such mental states, as there 
is, further than this, no necessary connection 
between them." 

No. III. — The Organ of Hearing, 

The organ which comprises the faculty for ob- 
taining perception of sounds, or, in familiar 
words, the organ of Hearing, is the Ear. 

The Ear is regarded by some as the most deli- 
cate of all the organs of the senses ; for while 
"the eye," as one says, "is more tolerant in 
overlooking faults than the Ear is in detecting 
discordant and jarring notes," " from the proper 
disposition of single sounds results the harmony 
that adds force to reason, and gives grace to 
sublimity ; that shackles attention and governs 
passion." 

The Ear consists of three parts ; the external, 
the middle, and the internal. 

Sound, or the vibrations of air, is concentrated 
within the auricle or external Ear, and thence it 
passes through the auditory channel to the mid- 
dle Ear or tympanum, or, in more familiar words, 
the drum, which Dr. Guilmette says is in the in- 
strument for conveying sound to the brain, what 
sheepskin is to a drum. 



44 The Mother's and Kinder gartner' 8 Friend. 

This tympanum or drum is so formed tliat the 
vibrations of air received from the auricle are 
swept over it to the internal Ear or labyrinth. 

This labyrinth is the most important of the 
three divisions of the Ear, for upon its mem- 
branous lining the ramifications of the auditory 
nerve are distributed ; and according to the esti- 
mation of a distinguished writer, about three 
thousand arches and one thousand little fibres 
or prolongations of the auditory nerve, or rods, 
as some call them, are located within this por- 
tion of the Ear, — Waldeyer reckons six thousand 
as the number of these inner rods and forty-five 
hundred of the outer in the human cochlea, or 
anterior part of the labyrinth, while Claudius 
says that there are tliree of the inner for every 
two of the outer rods. 

The auditory nerve is the special nerve in the 
organ of Hearing, being distributed exclusively 
to the internal Ear, and having its central termi- 
nations in the anterior part of the fourth ven- 
tricle or space surrounded by the cerebellum, 
the pons Varolii, and the medulla oblongata; 
while the other nerves of importance connected 
with the Ear are associated with the (jlosso- 



The Organs of the Senses. 45 

pharyngeal and fifth nerves, of which they are 
parts. 

How wonderful the mechanism constructed 
by the great Architect for the transmission of 
sound to the human brain ! 

"Ring out, ye crystal spheres, 

Once bless our human ears 
(If ye have power to touch our senses so) 

And let your silver chime 

Move in melodious time, 
And let the bass of Heaven's deep organ blow, 
And with your nine-fold harmony 
Make up full consort to the angelic symphony." 

'* Hark! through the calm and silence of the scene, 
Slow, solemn, sweet, with many a pause between, 
Celestial music swells along the air." 

The strain of feathered songster's notes, 

Like melodies of oriole. 
On thy soft zephyrs sweetly floats, 

And soothes the anguish of the soul. 

No. IV. — The Organ of Touch. 

The organs thus far considered "are more 
simple and uniform in their results than that of 
Touch," therefore we place the organ of Touch 
as the fourth in the order of our division. 

"The principal organ of this sense," says 



46 TJie 3Iothe/s and Kindergartner s Friend, 

Prof. Upliam, " is the hand, although it is not 
limited to that part of our frame, but is diffused 
over the whole body." 

The idea of Prof. Upham is that the hand 
principally acts as the organ of this sense, '^ be- 
cause, being furnished with various articula- 
tions, it is easily movable by the muscles, and can 
readily adapt itself to the various changes of 
form in the objects to which it is applied." 

From the anatomist we learn that the sense 
of Touch is derived chiefly from the skin. 

This agrees with Prof. Upham's idea, that the 
sense of Touch is really " diffused over the whole 
body." 

With this idea in view, we say that the cover- 
ing which serves as the protector to the impor- 
tant tissues beneath it is the epidermis or cuti- 
cle, which signifies something placed over or 
upon the real skin as a defence — this defence 
being usually recognized as the skin. 

The real skin* consists of two layers of tissue, 
the fibrous and the papillary^ and from this 
papillary tissue certain conical-shaped projec- 
tions called papillce arise, which are only about 
one-hundredth of an inch in length and one 



The Organs of the Senses, 47 

two hundred and fiftieth of an inch in diameter, 
and which contain one and sometimes several 
nerve fibres, whose peripheral terminations ren- 
der tliese papillae very sensitive to contact with 
any external object. 

These papillae are more numerous in those 
parts of the body which require the greatest 
degree of sensibilit)^, and they are so accurately 
united with the structure of the epidermis that 
the infiuence of a slight touch as well as that of 
a blow, or of the external application of any- 
thing hot or cold, is immediately conveyed, as 
it were, like the communications in telegraphy, 
to the sensorium. 

Among the miracles of Christ recorded in 
the New Testament we find three cases worthy 
of notice in this connection: one, where the 
leper came to Christ, saying, '' Lord, if thou wilt, 
thou canst make me clean." And Jesus put 
forth his hand, and touched him, sajdng, ''I 
will; be thou clean." And immediately his 
leprosy was cleansed. Another, where Jesus 
^ame into the ruler's house, and when the peo- 
ple were put forth, he went in, and took her by 
the hand, and the maid arose ; and still another, 



48 The Mothers and Kindergartner* s Friend. 

where two blind men came to Jesus, and then 
touched he their eyes, saying, "According to 
your faith be it unto you." And tlieir eyes 
were opened. 

]Sfo, V. — The Organ of Sight. 

We come now to the organ of Sight, which, 
if not the most important of the organs of the 
senses, deserves a high phice in our estimation 
of its value, and which we could better appre- 
ciate were we suddenly deprived of the organ 
of vision. 

" The medium on which this organ acts," says 
Prof. Upham, "are rays of light, everywhere 
diffused, and always advancing, if they meet with 
no opposition, in direct lines. 

" The eye, like all the other senses, not only 
receives externally the medium on which it acts, 
but carries the rays of light into itself; and on 
principles purely scientific refracts and combines 
them anew." 

How appropriate, then, that the Eye should 
be placed in the orbital cavity, situated at the 
upper and anterior part of the face, or what is 
more familiarly known as the forehead, which 



The Organs of the Senses. 49 

cavity is surrounded by seven different bones, 
which constitute a defence, and thus enable the 
Eye to perform its operations with facility and 
in safety; while the soul, like the pilot in the 
roundhouse, or the sentinel upon the rampart of 
some fortress by the sea, has, through the Eye, 
with its "artificial framework " which the Cre- 
ator has connected with it, an extensive range 
of vision. 

This mechanism is wonderfully arranged, not 
only as an instrument for sight, but also to give 
emphasis and expression to the different states 
of mind. 

The eyeball is spherical and well supplied 
with arteries, veins, fibrous and cellular mem- 
branes, muscles, aqueous and crystalline humors, 
and nerves of motion and of sensation. 

Three membranes surround the vitreous or 
glass-like substance of the central part of the 
ej^eball : the Sclerotic, the Choroid, and the 
Retina. 

The first of these membranes is fibrous, and 
imparts strength and protection ; the second is 
a vascular substance abounding Avith dark col- 
ored pigment — a word defined as a color for 



50 The Mother^s and Kindergartners Friend, 

painting — which serves as the quicksilver to 
the back of a mirror ; the third, a membrane 
which lies upon this pigment, and is thus ren- 
dered impervious to light. 

The Cornea is the transparent part of the eye- 
ball, and just internally to tliis a partition, or 
variegated circle, divides the aqueous humor ; 
and this variegated circle, known as the Iris, is 
pierced by a dark spot at a little towards the 
nasal side of the centre. 

The Pupil, or dark spot just mentioned, is 
dilated or contracted by certain muscles and ra- 
diating fibres, and becomes the direct channel 
through which liglit enters by rays which are 
so extremely small and delicate in their texture 
as not to give pain to this very sensitive organ, 
and which meet with no opposition until they 
come in contact with the Lens, which consists 
of a jelly-like substance so constructed that it 
presents a double convex arrangement, whose 
greater convexity is on the posterior side, which 
faces the retina, and from which the rays of light 
are refracted, and, having passed through the 
vitreous portion of the eyeball, are distributed 
upon the retina. 



The Organs of the Senses, 51 

The Lens, placed within a capsule, rests upon 
the hyaloid membrane — a higlily elastic sub- 
stance which surrounds the vitreous humor. 

The gradual weakness in the acuteness of our 
visual perception is owing to the depressing 
of the posterior and anterior convex surfaces of 
the lens. 

Having explained the operation by which the 
rays of light are refracted upon the retina, we 
will now consider the relation betw^een the 
braiji and the retina. 

The Optic nerve, the most important nerve 
connected with the organ of Sight, arises by 
two branches from the brain, and passing as 
optic tracts to the commissure, they there 
undergo a slight decussation, and then emerg- 
ing from this commissure in front, diverge, be- 
coming rounded and firm, and enclosed in a 
sheath connected with the arachnoid mem- 
brane which, as previously stated, envelops the 
brain. 

As each branch of this nerve passes through 
the optic aperture or foramen, it receives a 
sheath from the dura mater, before mentioned 
as lining the skull, and as it enters the 



62 The Mother s and Kinder g artner % Friend. 

orbit, this sheath subdivides, one part follow- 
ing the periosteum of the orbit, the other part 
forming a sheath for and surrounding the 
nerve. 

This nerve then passes through the cavity of 
the orbit, pierces the sclerotic and choroid coats 
at the back part of the eyeball, and a little to 
the nasal side of its centre, and then expands 
uj)on the retina, and becomes the mysterious 
and inexplicable channel of communication be- 
tween the images thrown upon the retina by the 
lens and the sensorium. 

The aqueous humor fills the spaces between 
the cornea and iris in front, and between the 
iris and capsule of the lens behind, while the 
vitreous humor is located in the concavity of 
the retina. 

Thus w^e have given a brief description of 
some of the more important substances con- 
nected with the organ of Sight, and in closing 
this division of our subject, we would explain a 
little farther by saying that rays of light falling 
in a direct line from an external object, are 
thrown or refracted through the crystalline sub- 
stance of the eyeball to the retina, which lies, 



The Organs of the Senses. 53 

like tlie face of a mirror, upon the dark pigment 
of the choroid membrane, and reflects the exact 
image of the object from which the rays of 
light proceed — which reflection is the element 
of the perception which produces what we call 
sight, and, as Prof. Upham says, "The image 
which is thus pictured on the retina is the last 
step which we are able to designate in the 
material jDart of the process in visual percep- 
tion ; the mental state follows ; but it is not in 
our power to trace, even in the smallest degree, 
any physical connection between the optical 
image and the corresponding state of the mind. 
All that we can say in this case is, that we sup- 
pose them to hold to each other the relation of 
antecedent and consequent by an ultimate law 
of our constitution." 

The Eye is an important organ as we learn in 
Cicero de Oratore, where it describes Cains 
Gracchus while expressing his lamentations 
over the death of his brother, as so affected 
that his eyes, his voice, and his gesture excited 
the tears of the whole Roman people. 

" Give me a larger eye, and I will reveal 
to you another rank of worlds marshalled be- 



54 The Mother s and Kindergartner^ s Friend. 

hind those whose shniing hosts you now be- 
hold." 

'' Let not him who, through his own indiscre- 
tion has weakened his eyes, curse God's glorious 
sunlight because it is the occasion to him of 
visual pain ! " 



Association. 55 



CHAPTER IX. 

ASSOCIATION. 

'TV /TEMORY is the agent by wliicli various 
subjects of thought are brought up, one 
after another, as the original ideas were trans- 
formed from sensations to perceptions in con- 
sciousness. 

It is this power of the mind in recalling the 
thoughts consecutively, in speaking or writing, 
that we define as Association : and through such 
operations the mind is able to bring to remem- 
brance what had well nigh or wholly slipped 
from tlie memory. 

Although memory is regarded as more im- 
portant than Association, we consider it proper 
to place the latter before the former in our 
arrangement of this subject ; for the child will 
look about the nursery as if it were his little 
world, and begin to examine and compare ob- 



56 The Mother'' s and Kindergartner s Friend. 

jects, even though memory may not have been 
developed to any great extent in his awakening 
mind, and led along by the principle of curios- 
ity, the power of Association will begin to be 
developed in the child's mind in this way rather 
than in the philosophic way appropriate to a 
more advanced state of mental development. 

Prof. Upham says: "As association is pre- 
supposed and involved in memory as well as in 
reasoning, we naturally begin with that prin- 
ciple first." 

Our thoughts, agreeably with the principle of 
Association, often come to our minds quite rap- 
idly, one thought awakening another, and that 
still another, and so on almost indefinitely. 

An allusion to the late Civil War leads us to 
think of suffering, devastation, bloodshed, the 
pains of the wounded, the groans of the dying, 
and the grief of the bereaved ; of the assassi- 
nation of President Lincoln; of the establish- 
ment of peace upon the basis of freedom to the 
slave. 

When we read of temperance reforms, we 
very naturally contrast by the power of Asso- 
ciation and comparison, drunkenness, idleness, 



Association. 57 

licentiousness, poverty, and misery with their 
opposites — sobriety, industry, morality, wealth, 
and happiness. 

When Ave think of the comparative merits of 
distinguished orators, our associated thoughts 
include Demosthenes, Cicero, Augustine, Chat- 
ham, Burke, Whitfield, Webster, and Clay, and a 
host of others ; and thus this principle of Asso- 
ciation will continue to bring up one name after 
another, and one subject of thought after an- 
other in regular succession, and to almost an 
indefinite extent. 

In Thompson's ''Winter" we have a good illus- 
tration of thislawof association,wliere we read, — 

** Along the woods, along the moorish fens 
Sighs the sad genius of the coming storm, 
Resounding long in fancy's listening ear." 

This power of the mind is of great advantage 
to the child in the Kindergarten, as he engages 
in the games and occupations, and it is also an 
especial benefit to one who would become a 
ready writer, a fluent speaker, or a successful 
debater ; and happy will he be who can in real- 
ity say with the poet, — 

"Thoughts on thoughts, a countless throng, 
Rush, chasing countless thoughts along." 



68 The Mother s and Kinder gartner^s Friend. 



CHAPTER X. 

MEMORY. 

O OME have regarded Memory as the most 
important of the mental faculties, however 
we place it in this connection, for it is said to 
be intimately connected with association in its 
operations. 

Figuratively speaking, the Memory is the 
treasure-house of past experiences; and Pro- 
fessor Hickok says, '^ Memory is neither knowl- 
edge, nor perception, nor thinking in judgment. 
It is the retention of so much of former things 
known, tliat they may again be called up and 
made materials for thought. Without nien,< ry, 
the mind could not attain its element for logi- 
cal or philosophical thinking. The thoughts 
and the order of thinking would both be 
wanting." 

'^ Memory," says Professor Upham, '4s that 



Memory. 59 

power or susceptibility of the mind by which 
those conceptions are originated which are 
modified by a perception of tlie relation of past 
time. Accordingly, it is not a simple, but 
complex action of the intellectual principle, 
implying a conception of the object, and a per- 
ception of the relation of priority in its ex- 
istence." 

We well remember the feelings of sorrow 
which thrilled the minds of the people as the 
news of the assassination of President Lincoln 
was wafted on every breeze to the remotest 
parts of the Union. 

Thus Memory is that faculty by which we 
are able to retain ideas of conceptions involving 
objects or things of which the mind had per- 
ception at some past time. 

The Memory is capable of development by 
exercise, and will become a most beneficial 
agent in aiding the pupil to prosecute his stud- 
ies successfully ; and this result is to be effected 
by close attention in listening to the instruction 
of the teacher, and by the habit of patient 
thought and reflection in reading and study. 

When ideas are once treasured in the mem- 



60 The Mother s and Kindergartner" s Friend. 

ory, they become as the basis of a superstruct- 
ure which is gradually to rise in beautiful and 
symmetrical proportions through all the various 
degrees of mental development. 

Ideas may slumber in the recesses of the 
soul, but at length, by some unexpected or 
powerful impression upon the mind, the quiet 
in which they have reposed is broken, and we 
are led, with the poet, to exclaim, — 

"" Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, 
Our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain; 
Awake but one, and lo! what myriads rise! 
Each stamps its image as the other flies." 



Imagination. 61 



CHAPTER XI. 

IMAGINATION. 

n^HIS is a mental endowment by which man 
is able to create ideas, which, while they 
are very instructive, are, however, inconsistent 
with reality. 

Some of the effects of the imagination are 
similar to those of reason. ''They both," says 
Professor Upham, "put in requisition and in 
precisely the same way, the power of associa- 
tion and relative suggestion, or judgment. 

'' But they are characterized by the two cir- 
cumstances, that their objects are different, and 
that they operate, in part, on different mate- 
rials. Accordingly, the one (reasoning) ascer- 
tains what is true, the other what is possible ; 
the office of the one is to inquire, of the other 
to create ; reasbning is exercised within the 
limits of what is known and actual, while the 



62 The Mother^ s and Kindergartner* s Friend. 

appropriate empire of the imagination is the 
region of the conjectural and conceivable." 

In its most comprehensive sense, Imagination 
involves the power of deep thought, and it has 
been said that the literal meaning of the word 
imagination is to form a picture. Hazlit says 
of Milton, that his imagination has the force of 
nature ; that he makes words tell as pictures, 
and that there is great depth of impression in 
his description of the objects of all the different 
senses. 

Dugald Stewart, in speaking of Milton's im- 
ages, Avhere he describes tlie beauties of Eden, 
says, " The association of ideas suggested them, 
and the power of conception placed each of 
them before him." 

The orator is said to paint, and what shall 
we say of the poet, inspired with sublime emo- 
tions, who, in tlie flight of his imagination, 
penetrates fathomless abysses, sweeps the cir- 
cumference of the earth at a glance, glides over 
the peaks of the loftiest mountains, and, as on 
angels' wings, soars to the throne of God ? 

"Imagination, in its legitimate sphere, is as 
necessary as the power of reason or the senti- 



Imagination. 63 

ment of devotion, and it forms complete images 
from the detached materials furnished by the 
senses." 

The influence of the imagination must nei- 
ther be restricted nor undervalued, except in 
its violation of the rules of chastity or propri- 
ety ; and, Avhile it is a peculiar and necessary 
power, its operations, in a well-organized mind, 
will be appropriate as regards all mental phe- 
nomena. 

What imagery is more beautiful and instruct- 
ive than that employed by the Saviour, while 
on earth, when he said, " Consider the lilies of 
the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither 
do they spin ; yet I say unto you, that Solomon, 
in all his glory was not arrayed like one of 
these." 

Rev. Robert Hall, of England, in his sermon 
on the death of the Princess Charlotte, thus 
speaks: ^'The Deity himself adorned the vic- 
tim with his own hands, accumulating upon her 
all the decorations and ornaments adapted to 
render her the object of universal admiration. 
He permitted her to touch whatever this sub- 
lunary scene presents that is most alluring, 



6-1 The Mother's and Kindergartner s Friend. 

but to grasp notliing, and after conducting her 
to an eminence where she could surve)^ all the 
glories of empire as her destined possession, 
closed her ej^es in death." 

Wraxall saj^s of Edmund Burke, ''Nature 
has bestowed on him a boundless imagination. 
His fancy was so vivid that it seemed to light 
up b}" its own power, and to burn without con- 
suming the aliment on which it fed." 

Sometimes, in consequence of disease or some 
other abnormal influence, the operations of the 
imagination become so affected as to result in 
what is called hallucination. 

Imagination can give beauty in all its forms 
as some of its grandest productions. 

The writings of the most gifted poets, essay- 
ists, and novelists are characterized as the pro- 
ductions of a versatile imagination. 

Children often display the influence of a 
lively imagination, in arranging their play- 
things, — dolls, soldiers, and other toys, — call- 
ing them by imaginary names, and exercising 
them as if they possessed life and intelligence. 

Looking across the street, we behold some 
beautiful flowers displayed in the light of the 



Imagination. 65 

sun, and we are led to compose the following 
lines as appropriate in this connection : 

We love to see, in winter time, 

Within where sunbeams brightly shine. 

Those flow'ring plants, whose sweet perfume. 

Exhaling as from vernal bloom, 

Will soon pervade the spacious room 

In which, 'mid light and genial air, 

They daily flourish, sweet and fair. 



66 The Mother^ s and Kindergartner^ s Friend. 



CHAPTER XIT. 

CONCEPTION. 

/CONCEPTION consists in the mental re- ^ 
vivification of former sensations which had 
ended in perceptions of certain objects or 
things, and in the awakening of ideas associated 
with those perceptions even in the absence of 
the cause which produced the sensations. 

Prof. Upham says : " Whenever we have 
conceptions our sensations and perceptions are 
replaced, as Shakespeare expresses it, in the 
mind's eye, without our at all considering at 
what time and place they first originated." 

We were present at the great fire in Boston, 
Mass., some twelve years since, and witnessed 
the destruction of many valuable edifices and 
magnificent structures, and now, after the lapse 
of so manj^ years, we have a vivid conception 
of the area burned and of the vast amount of 



Conception. 67 

property destroyed, and sensations such as we 
then had are aroused, so that we can see as with 
the mind's eye all that we then saw. 

It will be remembered, that perceptions result 
from an inward sense as well as from impres- 
sions made by external objects, and that con- 
ceptions are legitimately derived from this 
source, for example: — 

David, " the Shepherd Boy," went forth to 
meet Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, 
and he slew Gbliath with a smooth pebble 
which he hurled from his simple little sling. 
The history of this incident arouses the men- 
tal faculties, and we get a vivid conception of 
the bravery of the lad as he fought, trusting in 
the Lord for deliverance and victory. 

In the Introduction to " Paradise Lost," we 
read: "Poetical imagination is the power not 
only of conceiving, but of creating embodied 
illustrations of abstract truths, which are sub- 
lime, or pathetic or beautiful ; " hence this 
power of Conception, joined with a versatile 
imagination and comprehensive association, will 
prepare an individual to become distinguished 
as a writer. 



68 The Mother s and Kiiidergartner s Friend. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ABSTRACTION. 

^T^HIS mental faculty enables an individual 

to select from his stock of ideas a particular 

one, and to subject it to a rigid mental analysis. 

When we visit a beautiful flower-garden, we 
get a general idea of it ; but at some future 
time, if we wish to get a more comprehensive 
and satisfactory idea of it, we must recall each 
kind of flowers, and the style of adornment of 
which we have some conception, and analyze 
mentally their properties, and thus get in the 
abstract broader views of all that in their 
combination rendered the garden so attractive 
and lovely as a place of resort. 

This faculty is a very important one to be 
developed in the Kindergarten, for the pupils 
are there frequently called to practice with 
such things in the concrete as will, when re- 



Abstraction. 69 

solved into their component parts, give them 
more comprehensive ideas of size, form, color, 
texture, density, weight, length, breadth, thick- 
ness — ideas which involve the operation of the 
principle of Abstraction. 



70 The Mother's and Kindergartner' s Friend. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

REFLECTION. 

nnHE word Reflection is composed of two 
.Latin words, which, when united, signify 
the directing of the thoughts back upon them- 
selves, for the purpose of an examination of 
their intrinsic merit. 

In the operation of this faculty the mind 
takes a retrospective view of its memories, con- 
temphiting their nature and the causes which 
produced them, an exercise incompatible with 
the rush of thoughts as they usually pass 
through the mind in the midst of the noise 
and confusion of active life. 

Rev. Dr. Francis Wayland says : " Cultivate 
the habit of reflecting upon your actions and 
upon the iritention with which they have been 
performed, and of thus deciding their moral 
character. 



Reflection. 71 

" It is one of the most important duties in 
the life of a moral, and especially of a proba- 
tionary being." 

This advice of Dr. Wayland is equally appli- 
cable to the student and other seeker after 
knowledge, and it will prove to have been a 
most excellent and profitable exercise, if, upon 
leaving the school or lecture-room, the indi- 
vidual retire to his own room, and there review 
the subject of the day's lesson, and reflect upon 
the suggestions of the teacher or the ideas 
advanced by the lecturer, in order that right 
conclusions may be indelibly impressed upon 
the mind and kept for future use. 

We cannot easily do this without having 
acquired the habit of earnest and patient 
thought ; and we would do well to remember 
that one hour of meditation will be more val- 
uable than many hours devoted to reading and 
study without proper reflection. 

As food must be taken into the stomach and 
remain there for a certain time, in order that it 
may be assimilated by the digestive organs, and 
thus rendered suitable for nutrition, so instruc- 
tion should be received into the mind and 



72 The Mother's and Kindergartner s Friend. 

" assimilated by its own digestion," or reflec- 
tion, and thereby be prepared to remain as 
knowledge or facts in the memory. 

** 'Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours, 
And ask them what report they bore to heaven, 
Or how they might have been more welcome guests." 



Reason. 73 



CHAPTER XV. 

REASON. 

"OEASON is that faculty of the mind which 
enables us to discriminate between truth 
and falsehood, and to decide judiciously in re- 
gard to good and evil, and it also aids the mind 
in arriving at just conclusions from real or 
assumed propositions. 

Although the brute may have quick percep- 
tions, and act more sagaciously than many 
human beings we have known, it is not en- 
dowed with faculties capable of perceiving truth 
or of rationally apprehending the relation 
between perceptions and the exte;^nal object 
which produced them. 

It is this rational faculty, as we have before 
stated, that distinguishes man from the lower 
animals, and elevates him from the darkness and 
ignorance of the brute to the brightness and 
benefits of intellectual light. 



74 The Mother^ s and Kindergartne/ s Friend. 

" The operations of reason," says Prof. Hickok, 
"affect the mind and induce inward sensa- 
tions, and the insight of reason penetrates the 
very act of perception, and determines what it 
is, and what is conditional that it could have 
been, and thus comprehends both the perception 
and the phenomena given in it." 

With Prof. Hickok's idea of Reason in view, 
it seems as if this faculty were similar to con- 
sciousness, which we have already considered, 
if by its insight it can discover the quality of a 
perception, and understand the nature of the 
process, or transformation, by which a sensation 
becomes a perception. 

We are here reminded that the influence of 
perceptions caused by this mental faculty, or 
from within, will be as legitimate in its results 
as is the effect of those perceptions resulting 
from sensations produced from without, or by 
external objects. 

'^ The reasoning power," says Prof. Upham, 
" sustains the higher office of bringing to light 
the great principles and hidden truths of na- 
ture ; it reveals to the inquisitive and delighted 
mind a multitude of fruitful and comprehensive 



Reason. 75 

views, which could not otherwise be obtained ; 
and invests men, and nature, and events with a 
new character." 

We sometimes hear Reason spoken of as hav- 
ing been dethroned^ as in the case of the lunatic; 
and we are somewhat acquainted with the con- 
dition of those in whom Reason had never been 
enthroned^ as in the case of idiots. 

We also hear of the benefit of a reasonable 
doubt in the mind of a juryman, and this sug- 
gests a metaphor in which we will represent 
Reason as a grave judge, clothed with judicial 
vestments and surrounded with the insignia of 
authority, patiently listening to the evidence in 
order to discriminate and compare facts and 
statements, and explain the points of law, and 
instruct the jury to bring in a verdict which 
shall give the defendant the benefit of any doubt 
connected with a rational view of the evidence, 
and thus arrive at an impartial verdict. 

" Reason," says Thyer, ''too often is but little 
better than a slave, ready, at the beck of the 
will, to dress up in plausible colors any opinions 
that our interest or resentment have made asrree- 
able to us." 



76 The Mother* s and Kindergartner* s Friend. 

Reason, like an impartial judge, should bear 
sway, and aid us in analyzing, discriminating, 
and deciding in regard to the effects produced 
upon the mind through the medium of the 
senses. 



Judgment. 77 



CHAPTER XVL 

JUDGMENT. 

^T^HE Judgment is another mental faculty 
which gives man the ability to compare 
ideas and statements one with another, and, if 
possible, to get a correct knowledge of facts, so 
that he may form right opinions in reference to 
what may be presented for his consideration. 

Prof. Upham says, " We behold the flowers 
of the field, and one is fairer than another ; we 
hear many voices, and one is louder or softer 
than another ; we taste the fruits of the earth, 
and one flavor is more pleasant than another. 
But the difference of sound and brightness and 
taste could never be known to us without the 
power of perceiving relations ; " hence we are 
able by the organs of the senses, aided by judg- 
ment and perception, to get a knowledge of the 
qualities of objects, and through comparison 



78 The Mother's and Kinder gartner's Friend. 

and contrast to arrive at just conclusions in our 
investigations. 

When ideas have been formed in the mind 
and subjected to the process of reflection, we 
get more satisfactory ideas, and a more compre- 
hensive knowledge of their real nature than in 
any other way. 

There are various processes in the operation 
of this mental faculty by which we arrive at 
right conclusions, but we will forbear to advance 
farther in this direction than to sa}^ that in the 
Kindergarten the most important results in 
judgments will be derived from analj^sis and 
synthesis, as seen in the various exercises con- 
nected with the development of the Gifts. 



Sensibility. 79 



CHAPTER XVIL 

SENSIBILITY. 

O ENSIBILITY should not be confounded with 
sensation, for the latter involves perception 
through the medium of the senses, as we have 
previously seen, while the former denotes the 
'^ susceptibility of impressions, or the acuteness of 
perception." Rev. Dr. Hopkins says, " The In- 
tellect and the Sensibility are indispensable con- 
ditions for the being and actions of the rational 
Will ; for without Intellect there is no light, 
and without the Sensibility, there is no motive, 
and without a rational Will, there will be no ra- 
tional choice ; hence he represents man as possess- 
ing Intellect, Sensibility, and Will, and these he 
says are important constituents of his being. 
" The Intellect thinks, the Sensibility fdels, and 
while these are united the Intellect feels or ap- 
prehends the whole ; the Sensibility is affected, 



80 The Mother'^ s and Kindergartner' s Friend. 

and then the Will in unison with the operation 
of the Intellect and Will." 

Just at this point, where the Sensibility affects 
the Will, all things consistent with the nature 
and duty of man should so affect his Will that 
it will be turned from its worldly and selfish 
bias to the approval of everything conducive to 
elevate his condition and ennoble his character. 

** Sensibility how charming, 

Thou, my friend, canst truly tell ; 
But distress with honor bearing. 
Thou hast also known too well." 



Emotions. 81 



CHAPTER XVIIL 

EMOTIONS. 

Tn MOTIONS are excitements of the mind, 
or mental states, and they must succeed 
the operations of the intellectual faculties, in 
order that the cause of the emotion may be 
known and precede the excitement of the natu- 
ral desires or moral feelings. 

In the former case, or the excitement of the 
natural desires, they become natural emotions; 
in the latter, or the effect upon the moral feel- 
ings, they produce moral emotions. 

It is through consciousness that we discover 
the quality of the object or thing which creates 
the moral emotion. 

As there can be no emotions without the ex- 
ercise of the rational faculties, we cannot con- 
sider this subject under three divisions — ani- 
mal, intellectual, and spiritual — as we do in re- 



82 The Mothey^^s and Khidergartner^ s Frieiid. 

gard to the human organism ; therefore we are to 
consider the excitements of the animal nature 
in man as feelings instead of emotions, for in 
this respect, man is in the same condition as tlie 
brute. 

This excitement of the animal propensities 
in man is, according to the idea of Prof. 
Hickok, ^'the lowest form in which the human 
susceptibility develops itself in specific feeling, 
and these animal feelings can never transcend 
the limits of the natural world," but must be 
exercised in connection with the appetites, pas- 
sions, and natural affections of man, just as 
they appear in their operations in the brute. 

The real emotions, then, must be either ra- 
tional or spiritual ; and these maj^ be jjroduced 
in numberless ways through rational or spirit- 
ual discernment. 

Prof. Hickok says, '' Our reason looks upon 
nature as if she had a living soul, which 
is looking out through all her features, and 
expressing before us all her deep emotions ; 
and so soon as the piercing insight catches the 
living sentiment, our own souls respond in 
sympathy, and we feel at once the sjoirit within 



Emotions, 83 

us to be kindred to that which is glowing 
without us," and this we call aesthetic emotion, 
or love of the beautiful in nature. 

Emotions rising in my heart, 

I will, O Nature, now express 
Peculiar praise, so dear thou art, 

That I would not my thoughts suppress. 

The causes of emotions exist throughout the 
realm of nature, of science, of art, and of sa- 
cred and profane history. 

Again, "The same organ," says Prof. Hickok, 
"•that reads the sentiment in nature detects 
also the inner laws of nature ; in one is seen 
beauty, and in the other, truth ; and all emo- 
tions of each are in the one rational suscep- 
tibility, differing only as the direction of the 
insight varies." 

This discernment of the rational faculties 
arouses appropriate and peculiar feelings ; and 
with them no animal influences are to mingle 
and disturb their harmonious operations. 

When we investigate or behold things which 
in their origin are heavenly and divine, spiritual 
emotions are aroused, and conscience, in the 
exercise of its power, invests the emotions with 



84 The Mother'' s and Kindergai^tner s Friend, 

an influence which results in ideas of truth and 
righteousness. 

Under the influence of right spiritual emo- 
tions, the devout man sees God in everj^thing 
above and around him, and he can express his 
emotions after the idea of Pale}^ and sa}", the 
world is but a temple, and life itself one con- 
tinued scene of adoration. 

Such a mind accepts all the pleasures and 
pains incident to its condition here, as coming 
from a loving Father, who would not willingly 
afflict or grieve his creatures, but rather teach 
them to look beyond the beauties of nature, 
and desire to become dwellers in that spiritual 
temple, to the vestibule of which, nature, in all 
her variety of forms, may, through the blessing 
of God, serve as stepping-stones. 

Emotions indicate the state of the mind, and 
their effects upon the physical organism are 
frequently seen in the facial expression ; hence 
a child, guilty of some misdemeanor, maj' often 
be detected by his looks, as we familiarly say. 

How surprisingly numerous are the causes 
for the production of emotions ! 

Dr. Guilmette says, ''It is well-known that 



Emotions. 85 

an actor of merit will often, by a certain facial 
expression, convey a meaning which the finest 
flow of language cannot express. He will read, 
also, in such an effective tone, with such pe- 
culiar expression, pathos, and grace, as to pro- 
duce sympathy, delight, and surprise in an 
audience who have for years, perhaps, listened 
unmoved to the same passages, when recited 
b}" his competitors." 

Coquelin says, '' The true actor can take up 
his part, no matter when, and instantly excite 
the desired effect. He commands us to laugh, 
to weep, to shiver with fear. He needs not to 
wait until he experiences these emotions him- 
self." 

As the ocean receives the congregated waters 
of the continent through majestic rivers, whose 
sources are far up among the hills and moun- 
tains, so our emotional nature receives its im- 
pulses not only from nature and art, in their 
great variety of forms, but also from the opera- 
tions of the mind itself, producing emotions as 
really true as those which spring from behold- 
ing the objects of nature and art. 



86 The Mother's and Kindergartner' s Friend. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

ESTHETICS. 

/[ j^STHETICS is the science wliich involves 
or comprehends all that is elegant in 
form, or tastily arrayed, or expressive of that 
which is ennobling and God-like. 

In Shaw's translation of Delsarte we read 
that Plato says, '-' The beantiful is the splendor 
of the true ; " that St. Augustine says, " The 
beautiful is the lustre of the good ; " that Ga- 
len, Avhen he had finished his work on the 
structure of the human bod}^, exclaimed, ^' Be- 
hold the beautiful hymn to the glory of the 
Creator!" and that Delsarte exclaims, "What, 
tlien, is the true, the beautiful, the good? We 
might answer, it is God." 

Man possesses certain faculties by which he 
can relish, if we may be allowed the expression, 



^Esthetics. 87 

that which is beautiful in symmetrical propor- 
tion, or. in style of adornment. 

That which is to be elegant in form, or taste- 
fully arrayed, must be done in accordance with 
aesthetic rules. 

Some interesting literary work^ on the beauti- 
ful statue, or the landscape of the painter, with 
all its colors so beautifully blended that it 
seems a reality, is grasped by the consciousness, 
its quality appreciated by the reason, and re- 
sults in aesthetic emotions, or the satisfaction 
and pleasure derived from the gratification of a 
propensity to enjoy the reading of some Avell- 
written literary production, or to behold that 
which is beautiful in form or elegantly ar- 
ranged. 

Thus the sesthetic intellectual principle, if 
we may so call it, is well adapted to compre- 
hend and appreciate the beautiful in every vari- 
ety of style, both in nature and art. 

The true poet, whose strahis thrill the soul 
with ecstatic feeling, does indeed, like the painter 
aud sculptor, portray the objects of nature and 
art in such vivid colors that even inanimate 
objects seem to be endowed with life, and his 



88 The Mother's and Kindergartner' s Frie7id. 

rhythm, like the ebbing and flowing of the tide, 
inspires the sensitive mind with exalted ideas 
of the majesty of the Creator, who manifests 
himself in and through all that is beautiful 
and good and true. 



Conscience. 89 



CHAPTER XX. 

CONSCIENCE. 

/CONSCIENCE is called the monitor within 
us, for it is able to " warn of faults and 
inform of duty ; " hence, it will enable man to 
form a correct opinion in relation to his con- 
duct, — whether it will be in accordance with 
the law of God, — and through this faculty he 
will derive internal or self-knowledge. 

Rev. Dr. Francis Wayland says, " Its use is 
to teach us to discern our moral obligations, 
and to impel us toward the corresponding ac- 
tion ; and conscience or the moral sense, also 
denotes that faculty by which we discern the 
moral qualities of actions, and by which we are 
capable of certain affection in respect to this 
quality." 

Rousseau, in a quotation by Dr. John Brown, 
says, " The paganism of the ancient world pro- 



90 The Mother^ s and Kinder gartner's Friend. 

duced, indeed, abominable gods, who, on earth, 
would have been shunned or punished as mon- 
sters, and who offered, as a picture of supreme 
hap]3iness, only crimes to commit or passions to 
satiate. But Vice, armed with this sacred au- 
thority, descended in vain from the eternal 
abodes. She found in the heart of man a moral 
instinct to repel her." 

"Conscience," says Rev. Dr. Hopkins, "is our 
moral consciousness, in connection with our own 
choice ; not our outward acts, but our choices." 

Its precise nature and office are given by the 
Apostle Paul when he says, "For when the 
Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature 
the things contained in the law, these, having 
not the law, are a law unto themselves ; wliich 
show the work of the law written in their 
hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, 
and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or 
else excusing one another." 

This monitor is a true friend, to whose admo- 
nitions we will do well to take heed ; but human 
nature is weak in itself, and oftentimes the things 
that we would not, those we do, and when we 
would do good, evil is present with us. 



Conscience. 91 

Conscience can direct aright, but the Will is 
such a powerful free agent, as we shall hereafter 
see, that in the struggle between right and wrong 
it often gains the victory, and man, therefore, 
frequently does what he subsequently wishes he 
had not done, and this wrong-doing results in 
his unhappiness while the pangs of conscience 
continue to disturb his mind. 

Like a faithful watchman, Conscience attends 
us in all our ways, reproving when we are about 
to do wrong, congratulating us when we have 
gained the victory over evil, and thus conquered 
our enemy, and forewarning us of the evil result 
of some apparently good project. 

Conscience and Will are connected with the 
brain, and their influence in the spinal system 
of nerves in the human body is greatly affected 
by the substance of the brain matter being pro- 
longed in the spinal cord and mixed with it. 



92 The Mother's and Kindergartner' s Friend. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE WILL. 

n^HE Will is a mental faculty of wonderful 
power — a faculty through which man is 
influenced to do or not to do ; to choose or re- 
ject ; to relax or restrain ; to encourage or de- 
press; to please or provoke; to love or hate; 
and to yield to the influence of the Author of 
All Good or discard His loving kindness and 
tender mercy at pleasure. 

'' The Will," says Rev. Dr. Hopkins, '' is that 
constituent of man's being by whicli he is capa- 
ble of free actions, knowing himself to be thus 
capable." 

We have seen that the Will is a faculty of 
great power, and that while it is acted upon by 
the intellect and sensibility, that these two in- 
fluences should be regulated by and harmonize 
with Reason and Judgment, aided by the dic- 
tates of Conscience. 



The Child. 93 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE CHILD. 

TTTE come now to that division of our sub- 
ject which relates to the child and its 
preparation for, and entrance into the Kinder- 
garten ; and in considering this important and 
interesting division we will regard the child as 
existing under two conditions of life, namely, 
Infancy and Childhood. 

I, — Infancy, 
We regard this condition of the child as com- 
mencing with everything necessary for the right 
development of his faculties, assuming that he 
has a sound mind and a well-constituted physi- 
cal organism, and that all his faculties can there- 
fore be developed, in a greater or less degree, 
as he shall advance from a state enlightened only 
by the dawn of consciousness toward the re- 



94 The Mother s and Kindergartner' s Friend. 

splendent light of a comprehensive knowledge 
of moral and intellectual truths. 

Tliere are various opinions with regard to the 
limits which embrace the period of Infancy, but 
in law it does not cease until the age of twenty- 
one years ; however, it will be sufficient for us, 
in the elucidation of our subject, to sa}^ that we 
consider this period as closing, agreeably with 
the child's progress or development, at the age 
of about two years. 

It is as soon as possible during this period of 
Infancy that the training of the child's senses 
should begin ; for these senses are not only the 
instruments, or channels of communication, 
through which the mind of the child is to be 
affected and knowledge acquired, but also the 
basis upon which our hope of success in the 
effort to develop his faculties must indeed rest. 

Sensations are the constituent parts of knowl- 
edge ; therefore the child's mind must first be 
affected through sensations, resulting from im- 
pressions made upon the organs of the senses 
by contact with or the beholding of external 
things ; and thus the development of his mental 
faculties is to begin, and to be gradually carried 



The CUld. 95 

forward, agreeably with the frequency,, man- 
ner, and nature of the operations of the organs 
of the senses. 

As the child is incompetent at this period to 
transform sensations into conscious perceptions, 
he is subject, just like the brute, merely to in- 
stinctive impulses, and he will thus continue to 
exist, until able through the discerning and dis- 
criminating operations of the percipient faculty, 
to comprehend the nature of a sensation and 
the relation which it sustains to the external 
object or thing by which the impression prece- 
dent to the sensation is produced. 

The operation of the instinctive principle is 
interesting and perhaps worthy of notice in this 
connection. 

Bayard Taylor gives us an incident relative 
to the sagacity of the hippopotamus by saying, 
" I said in Arabic to him, ' I know you, come 
here to me ! ' He came to the corner where I 
was standing, pressed his huge, ungainly head 
against the bars of the cage, and looked in my 
face with a touch of delight." 

The Creator has given to the inferior animals 
two methods by which they can indicate their 



96 The Mother'' s and Kinder gartner' 8 Friend. 

sufferings and wants, one of sound, the other 
of expression ; and through these instinctive 
operations we are able to get some idea of their 
necessities, for how significant are the bleatings 
of the little lamb after having strayed from its 
mother, and the instinctive tones in which she 
answers its cry; and how impressive is the 
silent language conveyed by the wagging of the 
tail and the up-turned eye of a poor and half- 
starved dog. 

We have said that the child's conduct while 
in this instinctive state, is similar to that of the 
brute ; hence, the craving of hunger, the sensa- 
tion of thirst, the thrills of pain, and weariness 
from whatever cause, are made known to the 
mother or nurse by signs or sounds, and she 
immediately runs to his relief; and having 
attended to his necessities, or attracted and 
pleased him by the presentation of some pretty 
plaything, she is rewarded for all this attention 
by manifestations similar to those shown by the 
inferior animals toward which a like service has 
been rendered; but the helpless infant some- 
times suffering in various ways and yet unable 
to express his wants rationally, is, however, 



The Child. 9T 

endowed with the undeveloped principles of 
mind, and, therefore, with immortality. 
'' Heaven," says Wordsworth, 

" Lies about us in our infancy." 

The child is yet too young to comprehend 
his relation to external things, but still these 
are the things by which his faculties, whose 
importance is so soon to become more apparent, 
are to be developed. 

Therefore, the tiny unfolding bud of promise 
may, through the objects of nature and what 
God shall especially do for it, become an incal- 
culable blessing to mankind. 

The parent should understand, or have at 
least some idea of the nature of the endow- 
ments which God has conferred upon the little 
one, and be especially interested in the use of 
such means as ^Yill properly develop the faculties 
of his body, mind, and soul. 

Prof. Hickok says, '^ The child holds within 
himself a combination of elements from the 
material, the animal, and the spiritual worlds ; 
and while he is to be studied as existing in 
his own unity, it must be in the full appre- 



98 The Mother s and Kindergartner s Friend, 

hension of all this complexity of being — a 
rational spirit dwelling in a tabernacle of flesh 
and blood." 

" Tiie babe," as Milton says, 

*' Yet lies in smiling infancy," 

and his surroundings must be regarded with a 
lively interest, and as he increases in phj^sical 
strength from day to day, notliiiig should take 
place to mar the incipient operations of those 
higher powers, — the intellectual process AAdiich 
is soon to disclose itself by the transformation 
of sensations into perceptions, and thus open 
the way for the development of his faculties by 
communications from the outer world through 
appropriate channels, the organs of the senses. 

As the germ of the mighty oak must first lie, 
for a certain time, beneath the earth's surface, 
so the germs of intellectual power must lie dor- 
mant for awhile, as it were, within the child; 
and as the glimmering of the morning imper- 
ceptibly disappears at the approach of the 
cheerful light of day, so the precise time of the 
transition from the infantile gloom to the dawn 
of consciousness is not perceivable ; but a time 



The Child. 99 

comes when the mother's heart is filled with un- 
speakable joy as she beholds that first look of 
pleasure and angelic sweetness, — her darling's 
peculiar smile, — which betokens the rational 
recognition by the child of what a tender and 
affectionate mother is doing for her dear little 
one. 

As the icy shroud of winter disappears from 
the earth beneath the influence of the genial 
rays and gentle showers of spring-time, so the 
mysterious gloom which has so long enveloped 
the infant-mind begins to withdraw, and the 
sight of interesting objects never before ration- 
ally observed, thrills his mind with sensations of 
delight. 

The dawn of consciousness leads the child to 
"look upon the nursery as the world; and his 
first ideas will probably be his conceptions of 
his mother and nurse ; and the origin and his- 
tory of all his notions may be traced to his 
animal wants, to the light that breaks in from 
his windows, and to the few objects in the im- 
mediate neighborhood of the cradle and the 
hearth." 

In the natural world we see the husbandman 



100 The Mothei's and Kindergartner' 8 Friend. 

prepare the rich soil for the reception of his 
choicest seed; so the child's mind is now pre- 
pared to receive the influences of external 
things Avhich are to become as germs or ele- 
ments of knowledge within the mental soil, and 
which in due time will, agreeabl}^ with the proc- 
esses of mental growth, spring into life and 
bloom. 

It is a truth in the moral and intellectual as 
in the natural world, that good seed rightly de- 
posited in good soil, will, with the blessing of 
God, take root and bring forth good fruit ; 
therefore, we must be sure that while we attend 
to the physical condition of the child with all 
necessary care, the means emploj^ed for the 
development of his higher faculties shall be 
appropriate and adequate to their increasing 
necessities. 

'' The human organism is a marvellous instru- 
ment, — a harmonious lyre which God has given 
us for our use ; " and we must see that it is 
well preserved and kept in tune, and made to 
serve the exalted purpose for which it was con- 
structed. 

The child now begins to extend his vision 



The Child. 101 

beyond the confines of the nurserj^, and to take 
in some of the beauties of the external world, 
and this change adds a new impulse to his 
awakening mental powers. 

As he begins to feel and recognize the gentle 
pressure of the mother's lips upon his little 
cheek, he learns to love, — '' while he feels, only 
cries satisfy him ; but when he loves, he makes 
motions," and soon expresses his emotions in a 
significant way. 

As he increases in physical growth and mental 
development, he discovers new objects of at- 
traction and other fountains for the furnishing 
of thought, but tliese are external and materiah 

Prof. Upham says, " No one can observe the 
operations of the mind in infants and children, 
without being led to believe that the Creator 
has instituted a connection between the mind 
and the material world ; and that the greater 
portion of our early knowledge is from an 
outward source." 

The child has manifested his feelings by cries, 
his sympathy by significant motions, and now 
the principle of curiosity begins to manifest 
itself through his spirit of inquisitiveness ; 



102 The Mother's and Kindergartnei-'s Friend. 

hence, when anything is placed before him, he 
scrutinizes it, and wlien taken into his own 
little hands, he looks at it, turns it over and 
over and upside down, and then attempts to 
open or break it in pieces. This is a peculiar 
characteristic of childhood, and this '^ first in- 
dependent working of the infant mind," ""^s a 
natural propensity and to be regarded as one of 
the implanted, original characteristics of our 
mental constitution; it will lead us instinctively 
to objects tliemselves; but as a voluntary prin- 
ciple, to the contemplation of objects which are 
presented as worthy of one's interest or duty." 

The power of consciousness increases, and 
impressions more and more affect the child. 

**In the pleased infant see its power expand. 
When first the coral fills his little hand ; 
Throned in his mother's lap, it dries each tear. 
As her sweet legend falls upon his ear. 
Next it assails him in his top's strange hum. 
Breathes in his whistle, echoes in his drum; 
Each <rilded toy that dotino^ love bestows. 
He longs to break and every spring expose.** 

The desire to see the interior of things is in- 
deed a peculiar characteristic of the child at 
this period, and it is given, no doubt, for some 



The ChUd. 103 

wise purpose, for even this spirit of inquisitive- 
ness, if rightly directed, results in impressions 
which produce sensations, and these being 
transformed into perceptions, create ideas, and 
thus some knowledge, however feeble, is laid 
away in the mental storehouse. 

Nothing is such a source of pleasure to the 
child as the unfolding of his incomprehensible 
mental faculties ; and at each step in his prog- 
ress in mental development, the little aspirant 
for knowledge is inspired with fresh impulses, 
and the memory of past experiences urges him 
to grander achievements. 

Tlie mother should, if possible, assume the 
delightful and responsible task of controlling 
and training the child until prepared to leave 
the nursery for an advanced step in physical 
and mental training ; and this she can do in no 
better way than by doing ever3^thing for the 
child necessary to meet his wants, to elicit his 
attention and sympathy, and thereby to secure 
his filial obedience and affection in her efforts to 
promote his temporal and spiritual interests. 



104 The Mother's and Kindergartne/ s Friend. 

II, — Childhood. 

In laiL\ Infancy and Childhood extend through 
the period of minority, but according to the 
periods into which human life is divided, Child- 
hood is regarded as closing at the age of twelve 
or fourteen years. 

Hailman says, '' Strictly speaking, childhood 
comprises the first seven or eiglit years of life, 
and is characterized by the rapid growth of the 
organs. Physically, the child has attained at 
the end of the seventh year one-half the 
stature, one-third the weight of the adult, and 
six times the weight it had at birth. Men- 
tally, his growth is, perhaps, still more remark- 
able." 

Agreeably with Froebel's idea, the child at 
about the close of the seventh year usually 
begins to reason and investigate what he has 
previously experienced. 

Milton seems to have had a comprehensive 
view of the various periods of human life when 
he said, ^'I seldom ceased to eye thy infancy, 
thy childhood, and thy youth, thy manhood last, 
though yet in private bred." 



The Ch'diL 105 

" Childhood waiteth wistfully 

For manhood's strength, and woman's power ; 
And in the golden prime of life, 
Man waiteth for the evening hour." 

We have traced the course of the child 
through the critical period of Infancy and seen 
him step safely upon the threshold of Child- 
hood, and our next thought is, that if develop- 
ment is self-activity, as some one has said, how 
can we, therefore, rightly train the child so that 
he will, in his growth, become vigorous — phys- 
ically, mentally, morally — unless we commence 
in the nursery to lay the foundation for such a 
noble result? The child's mind is now just 
like a garden whose mellow soil is thrown up 
and to be planted with all kinds of precious 
seed, and into this soil we are to deposit the 
germs of truth, so that they may spring up and 
bear good fruit. 

What a blessing it would be at this time, if 
the mother were somewhat acquainted with the 
rudiments of the Kindergarten system, or would 
employ a young lady attendant who could render 
the necessary aid agreeably with Froebel's idea 
of nursery instruction. 



106 The Mothei^'s and Kindergartner's Friend. 

The family and the nursery are the very 
places where the child should receive whole- 
some instruction, and be shielded from all bad 
influences, while upon the mother the weight 
of responsibility is necessarily to rest; but, 
however valuable this home influence may be, 
it is evident that much of the responsibility 
connected with the education of the child is 
thrown upon the teacher of the primary school ; 
and with such limited opportunities as the 
schools necessarily have for moral and religious 
instruction, in consequence of much time being 
devoted to the attainment of secular knowl- 
edge, no system has ever been established, we 
think, that so well takes the place of home- 
training as tlie Kindergarten. 

Agreeably w^ith Froebel's ideas, the mother 
should have charge of the child, according to 
his precocity, for two or three years, and then 
he should be sent to a well-conducted Kinder- 
garten ; for, inasmuch as there are so many 
exercises in the Kindergarten instituted for the 
development of the child's faculties, the ad- 
vantages of this system are preferable to the 



The Cliild. lOT 

prescribed limits and small number of little 
associates in tlie nursery or family circle. 

As our next purpose will be especially to 
advocate the distinguished blessings to be de- 
rived from the Kindergarten system, we will 
continue to speak of this system and of the 
child as transferred from the nursery to a 
rightly organized Kindergarten. 



i 



108 The Mother's and Kinder gartner's Friend. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

KINDERGARTEK., 

npHIS word is composed of two German 
words, kinder and garten^ the former sig- 
nifying child, the latter, garden, and when the 
two are united we get the literal meaning, 
child-garden. 

Froebel gave his system of Kindergarten a 
very significant appellation when he called it 
the New Education ; and another equal Ij^ appro- 
priate and significant name for the place where 
the exercises of Kindergarten are daily con- 
ducted is the Paradise of Childhood. 

We wouhl suggest a broader and more phil- 
osophic definition of Kindergarten by regarding 
it as a science and an art, partaking of tlie 
nature of both, in the principles which underlie 
the operations involved in the development of 
its gifts and occupations. 



Kindergarten. 109 

Another definition that we would give is, that 
Kindergarten is the method for developing the 
faculties of the child bj certain physical exer- 
cises, and by impressions made upon his mind 
through a system of training by which he is 
brought into the observation of, or contact with, 
external things. 

"Froebel's system of Education," says one, 
" is a carefully studied outgrowth of nature and 
her laws. It is a system of natural develop- 
ment drawing out all that lies dormant in the 
infant mind." 

The Kindergarten may be regarded as a beau- 
tiful garden, where a faithful gardener will, in 
the language of Hailman, in his letter ad- 
dressed to a mother, train the tender plants in 
the way they should grow; who will provide 
the circumstances favorable to vigorous devel- 
opment, and keep away weeds and other hurtful 
things. 

The New York Weekly Tribune thus beauti- 
fully defines the Kindergarten as " a garden in 
which the little slip of humanity just taking 
root in life finds congenial soil, climate, and sur- 
roundings ; finds, also, provision made for the 



110 The Mother s and Kindergartner^ s Friend. 

full development of its nascent activities and 
all its growing faculties." 

It is, indeed, a delightful place, where many 
little children of about the same age meet and 
become acquainted with one another, and thus 
form social relations which tend greatly to instil 
into the little one's mind the principles of clean- 
liness, cheerfulness, kindness, sociabilitj", impar- 
tiality, politeness, obedience, and love* " Love 
is our motto in work and in play" — and this 
is no doubt used because it involves that prin- 
ciple which is the most powerful of all in arous- 
ing the sensibilities of the child. 

While the Kindergarten system regards the 
development of the moral and intellectual facul- 
ties of the very highest importance, it also makes 
a wise provision for the development of the 
physical faculties, by introducing a certain 
course of exercises or phj'sical drill, some of 
which are marching, and developing great prin- 
ciples through games and plays. 

The child thus placed in the midst of scenes 
calculated to make him joyous and playful, 
enters readily into those exercises which are 
especially adapted to his nature, and give him 



Kindergarten, 1 11 

muscular development and robustness, which 
make him feel cheerful and inspire him with a 
relish, as it were, for more important mental 
operations. 

Dr. Guilmette says, " See that the childreu 
are instructed in the proper use of their respira- 
tory organs. Play exercises these organs and 
develops the chest." " Through play," says 
Hoffman, "nature develops in the child all the 
faculties, both of body and mind, in a safe and 
healthful way." 

We know from experience how dearly chil- 
dren love to play, and that within proper limits 
it is really a necessary exercise. 

The Kindergarten should be the connecting 
link between the nursery and the primary school, 
and in accordance with Froebel's idea, this con- 
necting link, or intermediate system of train- 
ing, must not be called a school, but Kinder- 
garten. 

The Kindergartner soon discovers that chil- 
dren disclose positive and negative characteris- 
tics, some of which we will name, giving each 
positive its appropriate negative, namely : health 
and sickness, strength and weakness, beauty and 



112 The Mother s and Kinder g artner s Friend. 

ugliness, kindness and unkindness, cleanliness 
and dirtiness, tractability and nnmanageable- 
ness, generosity and selfishness, coiiscientions- 
ness and unscrupulousness, politeness and rude- 
ness, love and hatred. 

In the midst of such a heterogeneous mass 
the Kindergartner is to be " as wise as a serpent 
and as harmless as a dove " in her efforts to pre- 
serve and encourage that which is right, and, as 
far as possible, remedy that which is wrong. 

Miss S. E. Blow gives a very pertinent de- 
scription of the Kindergarten when she says, 
that it is a world where small virtues are nursed 
into strength by exercise, where small faults are 
gradually overcome, because their effects are 
clearly seen, and where character is harmoniously 
developed because the same truths realized as 
law are felt as love. 

One of the most contemptible traits in the 
character of the child — and I may say of the 
adult — is selfishness, which is a disposition to 
disregard the rights of others, or, as Prof. Upham 
says, a perversion of self-love, and the loath- 
some superstructure which man in the moments 
of his rebellion and sin has erected upon it. 



Kmdei^garten, 113 

Selfishness is a trait of character antagonistic 
to and will not harmonize with the principle 
which binds the component parts of civil society 
in one concrete mass ; therefore this germ, which 
might spring up in the growth of the child and 
bear distasteful fruit, should be immediately 
eradicated. 

The Kindergarten is the very place in which 
to check the progress of this injurious principle, 
and it is easily done by placing children of about 
the same age and mental capacity together, where 
they will all share alike in their plays and games, 
and thus learn in a short time to despise a mean 
and selfish spirit and to admire and practise the 
principle of generosity, to do which, it soon be- 
comes a fixed and noble habit of the child. 

The poet had the characteristic of the man 
when he wrote,— 

*' Man in society is like a flower 
Blown in his native bed ; 'tis there alone 
His faculties expanded in full bloom 
. Shine out ; there only reach their proper use." 

" The essential thing in the Kindergarten is 
the child^ — his nature, his growth, his develop- 
ment, his education, — while in the school it is 



114 The Mother'' s and Kindergartne?'^ s Friend. 

the opposite, the essential thiug being the ohjeet^ 
its nature, the knowledge, intuition, and under- 
standing of its properties and relations, and its 
designation ; the education that results from this 
is accessory, the accidental — the principal thing 
is the comprehension of the objects by the 
thought, the internal representation, the strip- 
ping off of the body, the abstraction. The inter- 
mediate school thus forms the transition betAveen 
the real, the sensuous intuition and the abstract 
conception." 

Miss E. C. Whipple says, '*The S3^stem of 
Froebel is so beautifully developed from its first 
principles, that a missing link would mar its 
completeness." 

The child is said to feel the need of knowl- 
edge as he does of food when hungry or of water 
when thirsty, but he is stubborn and must have 
it in the way his inclinations dictate. 

" What seem trifles to us are important exer- 
cises, experiments, discoveries, practices, and 
studies to the child." 

Froebel did not interfere with the operation 
of any of nature's laws in his new scheme, but 
he did, indeed, in consequence of his thorough 



Kindergarten. 115 

knowledge of the character and habits of the 
child, evolve from the operations of existing 
laws and the manifestations of mental phenom- 
ena a profoundly scientific yet simple method by 
which the development of the child's faculties 
could be accomplished with tlie most beneficial 
results. 

Mrs. Horace Mann very graphically describes 
Froebel's purpose when she says, ^' Froebel hum- 
bled himself to learn of the little child how to 
guide its powers. By throwing himself in im- 
agination into the child's place, and allowing 
himself to be guided by its wants and needs, 
he drew from nature the divine method which 
we see transforming the most degraded children 
of our effete civilization into angels of light. 
The genius of one man, not by a flash, or what 
is called an inspiration, but guided by love of 
his kind, which fed his thoughts as only love 
can do, discovered the method which unerringly 
enlists the co-operation of the child in the great 
work of his unfolding." 

Froebel was a man of great judgment and 
acute perception, and he understood human 
nature in all its variety of phases; and he knew 



116 The Mother s and Kindergartner s Fin end. 

that the child possessed a complex organism, 
body, mind, and soul, — matter united with 
mind by a reciprocal action operating m har- 
mony witli the laws of growth, and that he 
had also an individualitj^ and was not isolated 
but truly, a component part of society, which 
is but an organized heterogeneous mass, which 
by analysis, is found to be more or less affected 
by the character of the ingredients of which it 
is comj^osed. 

While intuition may do much to aid in the 
child's mental development, we should, never- 
theless, endeavor to derive all tlie information 
we can from any sj^stem of education founded 
iij)on the right basis for true development; 
therefore, we have investigated this system of 
Kindergarten and found it to afford all that 'is 
necessary to fit the child for the grade of ele- 
mentary instruction called the primary school. 

We commenced with the statement that the 
child's faculties are first to be affected by con- 
tact with external things; and it is just here 
that the natural tendencies are, in this respect, 
to be gratified, in order that there maj^ be a 
correlative and harmonizing influence between 



Kindergarten. 117 

the operations of his mind, and the external 
objects upon which his attention may be fixed. 

To whatever department of nature we turn, 
we see the universal law of harmony developed 
in her operations, and Froebel, taking this into 
consideration as the proper principle upon 
which to base a system of child culture, pre- 
pared a New Education whose method of de- 
velopment would operate in harmony with the 
child's being, and thus arouse it to appropriate 
self-activity. 

No one, probably, understood better than 
Froebel the principles by which the family and 
society should exist, and with a heart glowing 
with love to God and to his fellow-men, he 
made it the one great purpose of his life to 
remedy the evils which then existed in the 
methods of education ; and he did this, to the 
astonishment of all, by commencing with the child 
— thus " lajdug the axe at the root of the tree," 
and striving with all his powers to bring into 
operation and train his dormant faculties. It 
has been said that " the Kindergarten is not, 
in reality, a school, but is a place devised to 
prepare the child to enter the school at the 



118 The Mother's and Kindergartner* s Friend. 

most favorable time and under the highest aus- 
pices." 

Although this New Education is intended for 
infancy and childhood, it does, indeed, involve 
principles profound enough to task the mental 
operation of pupils in the schools. 

While Froebel has excluded from his system 
many branches usually taught in the schools, 
he has introduced others which he considered 
more beneficial and less burdensome, among 
which are the circle practices, in wdiich the 
principal addresses the children, repeating texts 
of Scripture or enforcing truth by telling stories 
and giving appropriate illustrations, after which 
they have a physical drill, singing, and march- 
ing, attended with plays and games. 

The Gifts are presented to the child in regular 
succession, and these are examined, compared, 
resolved into their component parts and then 
re-united by the operation of synthesis; and 
having given them appropriate and wholesome 
discipline in this branch, the strain upon their 
mental faculties is relaxed by the diversion 
consequent in tlie development of the Occupa- 
tions. 



/ 

Kindergarten. 119 

While the exercises in the department of 
the Occupations develop the mental faculties 
to a certain extent, they especially arouse the 
child's faculties, and develop his aesthetic and 
artistic capabilities. 

Prof. Payne says, ''Froebel is the first 
teacher to whom it has occurred to convert 
what is usually called the waste steam of child- 
ish activity and energy into the means of 
fruitful action, and to do this without repressing 
the natural, free spirit of childhood, but by 
making that free spirit the very instrument of 
his purpose." 

The Kindergarten is beneficial to mothers 
througli the influence of its training upon their 
children, for it inspires them with a deeper 
sense of their responsibility and maternal re- 
lations, and with a more lively sympathy with 
those who are laboring for the welfare of their 
children; and they are encouraged as the 
children become more cheerful and tractable 
and render willing obedience to parental re- 
straints, wliich the children now regard as a 
duty rather than a task. 



120 The Mother* s and Kindergartner s Fi^iend. 

*' We do not live but in these little ones. 
Who in our heart of hearts hold their despotic throne; 
Tliey take our life in gay and all unconscious mood, 
And only need be glad to prove their gratitude.'' 

It is a fundamental law of our nature that 
the mental powers must be developed through 
our physical organs, and that these powers are 
to exert their influence on material things. 

Observe the child as he begins to display his 
creative genius ; see him place bricks in rows, 
trace drawings in chalk, build sheds with refuse 
boards which lie upon the field. 

I was surprised to see not long since a minia- 
ture fort made of snowballs which the boys had 
built beside the street ; it had its entrance, its 
embrasures, its rampart, which was surmounted 
with fir-trees that had been used for Christinas 
decorations. 

Froebel studied the characteristic principles 
of the child until he understood his creative 
instinct, and, taking this fact as his basis, he 
argued that the child made in the image of God, 
is a creative being, and that there should be a 
system of education which would specially tend 
to the development of such faculties. 



Kindergarten, 121 

With the gradual development of the child's 
intellectual faculties as he increases in famili- 
arity with external things, we observe the 
symmetrical development of his physical 
powers. 

Activities are developed the most rapidly in 
. childhood, when the sight of external things 
especially arouses his faculties, and he begins to 
have many new ideas. 

As he surveys the various objects about him, 
he is filled with wonder and delight ; and the 
very objects which he handles, and with which 
he plays, become sources of knowledge; and 
having examined and reflected upon their 
qualities, he is led to make a still deeper inves- 
tigation by trying to get some knowledge as to 
the sources of certain results which he has 
discovered. 

The splendor of the golden sunset, the varie- 
gated rainbow which appears so beautiful after 
the vernal shower, the foliage of the dense 
forest, the gurgling rivulet, and the thickly- 
falling snow-flakes, all conspire to fill his 
thoughtful mind with feelings in harmoi:y 
with nature herself. 



122 The Mother s and Kinder gartner's Friend. 

Francis Bacon says, ''It is not in the books 
of the ancients that we are to studj^ nature ; it is 
nature herself who alone can redeem errors and 
enrich us with new knowledge." 

'* Creation," says George Moore, M. D., ''is 
the normal school of all intelligence, and the 
history of the acts of the Divine Being fur- 
nishes the whole course of studj^, and every 
lesson is only to teach us confidence in him." 

The child observes external objects with 
great interest, "manifests feelings of pleasure 
or pain in connection with such observa- 
tions, and desires to deal in his own way 
with such objects, and to take part in their 
actions." 

Dr. John Brown says, " The great thing with 
knowledge is, that it be not external mereh^ to 
theii inner and real life, for it is real knowledge 
which the child himself gets, that is to help 
him in after years and remain by liim." 

Therefo]'e, the pupil who depends upon the 
information of the teacher, or gets his lessons 
merely to pass in his class without reproof, will 
gi'ow up with only a superficial education, and 
never be able to accomplish so much as the one 



Kindergarten. 123 

who, by patience and perseverance, acquires 
knowledge by his own efforts. 

''The human faculties," says Prof. Batch- 
eller, ''may be strengthened by exercise. By 
obedience to the law of our nature, our bodies 
receive the most perfect development; our 
minds take in a larger range of thought, and 
our spiritual nature beats in unison with the 
beats of the Infinite Mind; and our whole being 
is gradually and consciously carried forward 
toward that 

* One far off, divine event. 
Toward which the whole creation moves.' " 

Kindergarten is a system which should be 
learned, as well as taught, and may a light 
spring forth from it which shall "reveal new 
horizons, hithei'to unknown." 

The foundation may here be laid upon which, 
in after 3"ears, an imposing superstructure may 
be reared, and germs so small as to be almost 
imperceptible may here be dropped into the 
well-tilled soil, which shall bring forth good 
fruit, "some a hundred-fold, some sixty-fold, 
some thirty-fold." 



124 The Mother s and Kinder g artner' % Friend. 

** Sow thy seed, and reap in gladness, 
Man himself is but a seed ; 
Hope and hardship, joy and gladness, 
How the plants to ripeness lead." 

We are here reminded that a true Kinder- 
garten should have connected with its internal 
operations a genuine garden, filled with trees, 
plants, and flowers, and into it the children 
should be taken, and there be trained, so far as 
possible, in the art of horticulture. 

As the laws of rhythm do not conflict with 
the laws of mind, one of the most beneficial 
exercises in connection with the Kindergarten 
is that of music, and it is important that the 
Kindergarten be furnished with a well-toned 
piano, for melody and harmony inspire the finer 
sensibilities, and make a lasting impression. 

As the child's mind is gradually developed 
in proportion to the means employed, how im- 
portant it is that we commence training him in 
everj^ possible way, with earnestness and un- 
tiring zeal. 

He must be instructed in tlie proper use of 
every bodily and intellectual faculty, and when 
we consider what the Kindero-arten is able to do 



Kindergarten. 125 

for the cliild, how important this New Educa- 
tion becomes to all who are interested in the 
progress of civilization and religion. 

Bertha Von Marenholtz-Biilow says, ''Froe- 
beFs mind selected and arranged the matter, 
the forms, colors, and tones, in the elementary 
simplicity in which they can penetrate the 
child's sou], without disturbing the stillness of 
its budding life, without awakening it violently 
or artificially out of its slumbers, and without 
stifling the glimmering, spiritual spark in the 
ashes of materialism. He found the rule under 
whose guidance the motherly instinct can pro- 
ceed safely and freely in order to find the 
riglit." 

Miss S. E. Blow says, " The perceptive fac- 
ulties of the child are stronger at this period 
than at any other time, and while understand- 
ing and reason sleep, the sensitive mind is re- 
ceiving sharp impressions of external things, 
which, held fast in the memory, transformed by 
the imagination, and finally classified and or- 
ganized through reflection, result in the deter- 
mination of thought, and in the formation of 
character." 



126 The Mother^ s and Kinder gartner^s Friend. 

Play was regarded by Froebel as the purest 
intellectual production of the child, and the 
child who played properly as one who would 
become a man of self-sacrificing spirit, and try 
to promote the welfare of others. 

Payne represents Froebel as seated upon a 
lawn, with a number of children around him, 
plaAdng in the open air, with no restraint. He 
seems to hear Froebel break out in the follow- 
ing soliloquy, '•'• What exuberant life ! What 
immeasurable enjoyment! What unbounded 
activity ! What an evolution of physical 
forces ! What a harmony between the inner 
and the outer life I What happiness, health, 
and strength I " 

Pestalozzi succeeded Comenius and Rousseau, 
as the third of the trio of educational reformers 
of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth 
centuries, and was known as the father of pop- 
ular education ; and, realizing the great im- 
portance of the mother's influence over the 
child, was led to exclaim, " I will make educa- 
tion the basis of the common moral character 
of the people, and I will put the education of 
the people in the hands of the mothers." 



Kindergarten. 127 

Froebel, once a student under Pestalozzi, 
now becomes the fourth great reformer, and 
takes a more comprehensive view of the nature 
of education as applied to child-culture. 

For while recognizing with Rousseau the im- 
portance of ''individual growth and moral 
excellence," and with Pestalozzi the value of 
" harmony between individuals and societj^, and 
communion with God," Froebel believed in the 
harmonious development of the child's faculties, 
and that this development was not to be accom- 
plished by growth in mental and moral attain- 
ments alone, but also by phj^sical exercises in 
which the work of the hands would develop 
thought, and result in things produced by the 
child as an imitator or created by him as an 
inventor — this leads us to say that, in the sen- 
timent of another, the child at once becomes a 
young discoverer, inventor, and manufacturer 
through the Kindergarten system of child- 
culture. 

Froebel was thoroughly imbued with Pesta- 
lozzi's idea of committing, for a certain period, 
the " education of the people " to mothers ; and 
we heartily coincide with both Pestalozzi and 



128 The Mother s and Kinclergartner s Fi^iend. 

Froebel in believing that one of the greatest 
responsibilities resting upon parents, is that 
which requires them to do all in their power 
for the temporal and spiritual Avelfare of their 
children; and Avhile we would appreciate ail 
that the father can do for the child, we can but 
agree with those great educational reformers in 
the belief, that the responsibility of training the 
child so that his activities shall be directed 
aright and result in the greatest good, is pecul- 
iarly laid upon the mother. 

Froebel's idea of education was, that it in- 
volved growth, and he no doubt realized that 
neither the intellectual nor the physical facul- 
ties suddenly arrive at their full development, 
but that they gradually unfold, like the bud in 
spring-time, and that there is a mutual relation 
and inter-dependence between the operations of 
the body and the mind, so that they co-operate 
systematically and harmoniously in the develop- 
ment of the child'^s organism. 

Agreeably with previous methods of educa- 
tion, children were transferred from the nursery 
to the school at quite an early age, too early in 
many cases, and in view of this fact, Froebel's 



Kindergarten. 129 

attention was aroused to the consideration of 
some new method as intermediate ; for he was 
aware that the school system tended to burden 
the memory of the child, and thus retard the 
operations of true development, and that this 
result was produced by requiring the pupil to 
commit to memory many subjects so abstruse 
and logical, that they become a source of hin- 
drance in the progress of the child's develop- 
ment. 

The more he reflected upon this condition of 
things, the more earnest he became in the desire 
to establish a system of discipline more appro- 
priate to the child's capacity, and to which he 
would the more naturally, and therefore the 
more easily, incline, and which would not mar 
the harmony of his Jiature by pressing upon his 
attention and memory the burden of a daily 
routine of studies too hard to be successfully 
and profitably comprehended at this stage of 
the child's development. 

With regard to the moral influence of the 
Kindergarten, we know that it leads the child 
to love truth, to manifest a right disposition 
towards others, and to form such habits of life 



130 The Mother^ s and Kmdergartners Friend. 

as will be consistent with his relations to society 
and to God. 

We do reiterate our opinion that Kinder- 
garten discipline does indeed, if rightly con- 
ducted, make indelible impressions upon the 
minds of children, directing their thoughts to 
God and spiritual things, and serving as a pow- 
erful impulse to noble self-activities. 

Froebel realized that the child was necessarily 
left in the care of the mother, and that she had 
the better opportunity for discovering his pecul- 
iar inclinations or characteristics, and the in- 
centives requisite to the right develoj)ment of 
his faculties, and that the relation between 
mother and child was more favorable for moral 
and religious development than that usually 
enjoyed in the schools. 

After much time spent in preparation for his 
work, Froebel decided upon a method of child- 
culture, and he lost no time in engaging in the 
important and delightful task of establishing a 
system which he thought would be appropriate 
to the comprehension of children from three to 
about eight years of age, and serve as the inter- 
mediate system and link between the nursery 



Kindergarten. 131 

and the school, and also be regarded as worthy 
of public recognition. 

This system which Froebel established upon 
a basis as firm as that which underlies the oper- 
ations of nature, has descended to us as a 
priceless legacy, as the crowning method for 
child-culture, and as a monument to perpetuate 
the memory of its worthy founder — a monu- 
ment as imperishable as the sphere, cylinder, 
and cube which he loved so well, and which so 
befittingly mark the hallowed spot where his 
remains are deposited. 

And where, boneatli that emblem-stone, 

Ilis body will decay — 
But God has called his spirit home. 

To realms of endless day. 

In training the child, we should look beyond 
the sphere of his present limited influence, and 
realize the importance of the position which he 
is, perhaps, in after years to occupy. 

The idea of another is so appropriate in this 
connection, as well as applicable to Kinder- 
garten, that we quote it. " The plan of teach- 
ing is based on the assumption that seeing is 
the first step on the road to knowledge ; that 



132 The Mother's and Kindergartner s Friend. 

how much the child learns in his early yeai'S 
is of little importance, — how he learns, every- 
thing. 

" That the teacher's work is not to teach the 
facts but to lead the mind of each pupil to work 
out for itself the simple physical problems wit- 
nessed or described, and to cultivate the habit 
of perseverance in investigation/' 

We are living in a peculiar time, — a time 
when the realizations of the wise and good so 
frequently fail to meet their anticipations, — a 
time when the combined influences of all that 
is detrimental to the family and society, oppose 
the progress of truth and righteousness, and this 
condition as a prospective evil we should pre- 
pare the rising generation to meet, by our 
methods of training them to be able to over- 
come every obstacle that may lie in their path, 
as they shall struggle against error in every 
form. 

We are inclined to think that tliQ prosperity 
of our beloved country and the influence which 
she is to exercise among the nations of the earth 
during the coming century, will depend very 
much upon the moral influence which the rising 



Kindergarten. 133 

generation is to exert in the family, the church, 
and the world. 

We now come to the important and practical 
question, How shall we train the child so as 
to prepare him to enter the primary school 
under the most favorable auspices? 

According to Froebel's own words, this New 
Education — Kindergarten — must lead the 
child to unification of life in all directions ; 
must lead him to full unification in and with 
himself; must lead him to unification with his 
kind, with his neighbor, with society ; must 
lead him to the greatest possible unification 
with nature and lier laws ; must lead him to an 
indissoluble unification with the principle of all 
being, the Alpha and Omega, of all life, with 
God. 

With such life-giving principles as underlie 
the system of Kindergarten, its method of child- 
culture becomes the most significant and bene- 
ficial, for it involves those advantages of which 
both the family and the school are in a greater 
or less degree deprived, but with which all the 
little ones who attend the Kindergarten are 
favored, and who unconsciously, as it were, open 



134 The Mother's and Kindergartner^ s Friend. 

their little hearts to the genial influence of 
the Kinclergartner, so that she will be able, if 
rightly qualified for her position, to mould the 
jjlastic clay which shall be placed within her 
reach, into beautiful forms of knowledge pre- 
pared to adorn some department of the temple 
of God in Heaven. 

The Kindergartner should be fitted by educa- 
tion and natural disposition for the important 
position which she is to occupy, and strive faith- 
fully and diligently to train aright the children 
which may from time to time be entrusted to 
her, realizing that childhood is the formative 
period, wheii the child is most susceptible to 
good or bad impressions and influences; and she 
should be willing to make all possible sacrifices 
that the pathway of the child may be brighter, 
its life more pleasant, and its happiness less 
alloyed in consequence of her faithful efforts in 
its behalf, while she is to be stimulated in the 
discharge of her duties by the hope of the re- 
ward of those who by patience and perseverance 
in well-doing, seek for hqnor and immortality. 

The eflicient Kindergartner should understand 
the nature of the progressive development of 



Kindergarten. 135 

the child-mind, the best methods for promoting 
this development, and the appropriate way to 
employ the facilities for such development. 

Shakespeare says, " I can easier teach 
twenty what were good to be done than to be 
one of the twenty to follow my own teachiiig." 

The success of the Kindergartner will greatly 
depend upon her knowledge of the laws of 
mental operations, whereby she may be enabled 
to exercise judicious discrimination in restrain- 
ing precocity on the one hand, and in giving 
impulse and activity to stupidity on the other. 

What the Kindergartner says to the child 
affects his mind through an inward process of 
sensation ; what she does in his presence, in the 
use of external things, makes an impression 
upon his mind through the proper channels of 
communication between the mind and the outer 
world ; and these two exercises, accompanied 
by music on a well-toned piano, which is almost 
indispensable in the Kindergarten, affects the 
child with peculiar power ; and since the system 
of Kindergarten is founded upon a basis as firm 
as that which sustains the operations of nature 
and renders the solutions in mathematics possi- 



136 Tlte dlotJier^s and Kindergartner'^ s Friend. 

ble, the child shouki be so trained that he will 
advance from one degree of attainment to an- 
other in regular logical succession. 

Carlyle says, "A loving heart is the beginning 
of all knowledge. This it is that opens the whole 
mind, and quickens every faculty of the intel- 
lect to do its quick Avork." 

Imagination is also appropriate to the nature 
of the child, and it will be excited by what the 
memory suggests ; and while the Kindergartner 
is imparting truths to the cliild, this mental 
power will operate in connection with the 
memorJ^ 

But the memory of the child must not be bur- 
dened by too many facts at once, for much Avill 
be forgotten ; and as he is unable to grasp sub- 
jects adapted to children more advanced in j^ears, 
the words of the Kindergartner should be sim- 
ple, childlike, and delivered in a clear, concise, 
and expressive manner, so as to tax the memory 
as little as possible. This is one of Froebel's 
important and fundamental principles in child- 
culture. 

A smile, a genial recognition of the little one, 
sympathy, and, above all, true love toward the 



Kindergarten. 187 

child, are necessary to success in the Kindergar- 
ten — these are the keys which unlock the doors 
to the child's affections and confidence, and hav- 
ing gained these, the Kindergartner can lead the 
child in the right direction. 

The child-garden must be well prepared and 
then planted with the choicest germs ; and when 
they begin to spring up and open their j)etals to 
the genial influences which should surround 
them, the Kindergartner must be faithful and see 
that no weeds be permitted to take root within 
tlie well-cultivated soil. 

The Kindergartner must show no partiality, 
but, agreeably with Kindergarten principles, 
respect the rights of all ; and when necessary, 
the spirit of sympathy and compassion must 
be shown toward the poor, ignorant, half-clad, 
starving little ones, for — 

**The huge, rough stone from out the mine. 
Unsightly and unfair, 
Has veins of purest metal hid 
Beneath the surface there." 



138 The Mother'' s and Kindergartner s Friend. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

ADVICE TO KINDERGARTNEKS. 

A S a brief summation of advice to the Kin- 
dergartner, the following may not be un- 
important : 

1. Everything presented for the child's con- 
sideration must be appropriate, and the remarks 
of the Kindergartner in presenting it should be 
well-adapted to awaken a lively interest in the 
child-mind. 

2. Direct the attention of the child to the 
various objects of nature, and to the truly beau- 
tiful in art, and aid him in obtaining elements 
of knowledge through impressions to be made 
upon the organs of the senses by external things. 

3. Help the child to get right ideas of God, 
who manifests His wisdom and power in the 
works of nature, and controls tlie operations of 
mind as well as of matter by universal law. 



Advice to Kindergartners. 139 

4. Explain to the child, in a familiar way, hia 
relation to his parents, his brothers and sisters^ 
his little companions, and to God; and endeavor 
to make him understand that he is not an iso- 
lated being, but that his good or bad conduct is 
to affect all with whom lie may associate. 

5. Make the circle practices in the Kinder- 
garten not only interesting but instructive and 
impressive, and also conducive to physical devel- 
opment, thus stimulating the child by such pas- 
times to engage in the succeeding mental exer- 
cises with a good relish. 

6. Then place the Gifts before the child, each 
in its logical or consecutive order, and lead him 
gradually from the simple to the complex, and 
from the concrete to the abstract by analysis, 
and from the abstract back to the concrete by 
synthesis, thus developing his. mental faculties 
in a natural and beneficial way, as he passes 
from gift to gift. 

7. Relax the slight strain upon his mental 
powers by taking him from the investigation of 
mathematical and geometric forms into the di- 
versified and flowery field of the Occupations; 
where, in addition to mental development through 



140 The Mother's and Kindergartner* s Friend. 

his creative genius so well trained in the exam- 
ination of the Gifts, the hand and the eye will 
be trained to a definite purpose, and the aesthetic 
and artistic capabilities developed in a wonder- 
ful manner. 

8. Let the Kindergartner, as she stands from 
day to da}" in the midst of her little ones, be 
encouraged by their progress in the right direc- 
tion, and especially by the realization, in her 
own experience with the children, of the senti- 
ment of a distinguished American, poet lately 
deceased, who says : 

"The heart hath its own memory, like the mind. 
And in it are enshrined 

Tlie precious keepsakes into which are wrought 
The giver's loving thought." 



Noble Aspirations. 141 



CHAPTER XXV. 

NOBLE ASPIRATIONS. 

n^HE mind is the fountain of knowledge ; 
and as it is a well-known fact in physical 
science that a column of water will rise no 
higher than the fountain from which the supply 
is to be furnished, so the result of our efforts in 
the acquisition of knowledge will be propor- 
tionate to the mental power or source from 
which the impulses to self-activity are to spring 
— proportionate to the high standard upon 
which our ej^es are to be continually fixed — a 
standard which should attract like the sun, 
whose brilliancy cheers the mountain eagle as 
she soars heavenward until able to find a place 
for her nest in some crag of the mountain's top- 
most cliff; a standard which should be as a 
beacon light upon some rock-bound coast to 
guide the tempest-tossed mariner to a haven of 



142 The Mother s and Kindergartner^ s Friend. 

security and rest; a standard whose influence 
shall be proportionate to the value of tlie prize 
for which we, as actors in the grand arena of 
life, are to struggle, if we would gain the vic- 
tory, with a, valor as unyielding as that which 
characterized the contestants of ancient Rome. 

Noble Aspirations should be as the impelling 
force to aid us in our physical, intellectual, and 
moral development, and as the hidden power to 
give energy to self-activity, and thus enable us 
to surmount every obstacle that may lie in our 
path and hinder our progress. 

Blessed with the impulses of such aspira- 
tions, our heroism will be known by the number 
of our victories, and the glory of our achieve- 
ments will be the more exalted and enduring, 
as we shall be able to subject the physical and 
intellectual elements of our nature to the influ- 
ence of the moral element, whose power as an 
equilibrium in the human organism the Creator 
has so wisely appointed and put in operation. 
As trained veterans, inspired with the spirit of 
patriotism, press forward, shoulder to shoulder, 
until they are able to plant the flag they so 
dearly love upon the enemies' battlements, so 



Nolle Aspirations. 143 

we should be prepared to meet every difficulty 
and danger, and come off conquerors while 
struggling in sight of the standard leading us 
in our onward march to victory. 

While many fall into a state of indifference 
or despondency because they have no impelling 
mental power, others, more ambitious, press up 
the rugged heights of knowledge until they are 
able to plant their weary feet upon its towering 
summit, from which they can behold the exqui- 
sitely beautiful landscape in the distance, pre- 
pared as the rich reward for those who, through 
toil and self-sacrifice, shall be accounted worthy 
of such a delightful inheritance. 

Noble aspirations will prepare us to exert a 
beneficial influence while we live, and society in 
its progress in civilization will be the better for 
our influence, becoming more refined as its 
individual members conduct aright in their 
relations to the body of which the individual is 
but a component part. 

Let the Kindergartner be encouraged, then, 
by all that the good in every age have achieved, 
and equally admonished by lives spent in sloth- 
fulness and immorality. 



144 The Mothei^^s and Kindergartner^ s Friend. 

May she sympathize with those who are 
struggling amid the trials of life to reach a 
worthy position in moral and intellectual 
culture. 

Her influence is to live when she shall have 
passed beyond the veil which separates time 
from eternitJ^ 

In her character-building, may she lay the 
foundation deep and strong ; may the super- 
structure rise in magnificent and symmetrical 
proportions, and become, like Froebel's, an en- 
during monument to the memory of her dili- 
gence and perseverance in the path of virtue 
and knowledge. 

The work to which the true Kindergartner is 
called is worthy of her highest ambition and 
loftiest aspirations ; may she, then, with a heart 
overflowing with love toward the child, be pre- 
pared agreeably with the sentiments of Froebel 
himself, '' to take the oversight of children 
before they are ready for school-life ; to exert 
an influence over their whole being in corre- 
spondence with its nature ; to strengthen their 
bodily powers; to exercise the senses; to em- 
ploy the awakening mind; to make them 



Nohle Aspirations. 145 

thoroughly acquainted with the world of nar 
ture and of man; to guide their hearts and 
souls in a right direction, and to lead them 
to God, the source of all life, and to union with 
Him." 



146 The Mother^ s and Kindergartner^s Friend, 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

FACTS IN EELATION TO FROEBEL. 

nn^RIEDRICH WILHELM AUGUST 
FROEBEL was born in the Tlmringian 
forest in Oberweissbach, in the principality of 
Schwarzburg - Rudolstadt, Central Germany, 
April 21, 1782. 

At ten years of age he entered the school of 
his uncle Hoffman at Stadt-Ilm, and here he 
enjoyed the advantages of such means as were 
calculated to fit him for the ordinary employ- 
ments and duties of life, some of which means 
were instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, 
and religious culture. 

Upon leaving his uncle's school, he studied 
about two years at the university of Jena, and 
then accepted a position as teacher in a model- 
school at Frankfort-on-the-Main. 

He soon left the model-school and became a 



Facts in Relation to Froehel. 147 

private tutor, and in entering upon his duties 
as tutor, he remarked, '^I wish to cultivate men 
who stand rooted in nature, with their feet in 
God's earth; whose heads reach towards and 
look into the heavens ; whose hearts unite the 
richly-formed life of earth and nature and the 
purity and peace of heaven, — God's earth and 
God's heaven." 

He soon resigned his tutorship, and went to 
Yverdun, where he spent about three years 
under the training of Pestalozzi, who was then 
known as the father of popular education. 

At the expiration of his course under Pesta- 
lozzi he returned to Frankfort ; and remaining 
there but a short time, he then went to Got- 
tingen. 

While staying in Gottingen, he devoted him- 
self with earnestness and perseverance to the 
prosecution of his studies; and for recreation, 
he was in the habit of walking a great deal, in 
order that he might be greeted by the light 
and friendly rays of the sinking sun, sometimes 
walking till almost midnight in the suburbs of 
Gottingen, for the purpose of thereby strength- 
ening his mental and physical faculties. 



148 The Mother § and Kindergartner^s Friend. 

Upon leaving Gotting-en, he went to Berlin 
to attend a course of lectures* 

At the breaking out of the war in 1813, he 
entered the infantry division of the corps of 
Lutzow, at Leipsic ; and it was his spirit of 
patriotism that inspired hiro to serve as a sol- 
dier in the army which was fighting in defence 
of the rights of a people whose children he had 
been so faithfully teaching. 

Froebel's first Kindergarten was established 
in 1839 at Blankenburg, and from this time till 
liis death he was engaged in establishing Kin- 
dergartens. 

In 1848 he called a meeting of teachers, and 
laid before it a plan for educating children in a 
school at Rudolstadt ; and he prevailed upon 
them, and the unanimous decision of the assem- 
bl)^ was in his favor, and the world of teachers 
became mindful of his efforts in this direction. 

After this recognition of his efforts, he went 
to Dresden to establish a Kindergarten, and the 
next year, 1849, we find him in Liebenstein, — 
and his system is said to have taken deep root 
in Hamburg. 

In 1850 he removed to the hunting castle at 



Facts in Relation to Froehel. 149 

Marienthal, near Liebenstein, Hambarg, which 
the duke of Memingen had granted to him for 
educational purposes- 
Two years later, 1852, the German Teachers' 
General Assembly met in Gotha, to wliich 
Froebel wa^ invited, and upon entering the 
Assembly they all rose as one man, and Froebel 
had the joy of a universal recognition. 

Froebel died at Marienthal, on the 21st day 
of June, 1852, at the age of seventy years and 
two months. 

Froebel seems to have struggled against 
many difficulties in his efforts to establish his 
sj^stem of Kindergarten, but his labors were at 
last crowned with success; and we have no 
doubt that the Kindergarten superstructure 
rests upon a foundation so firm that it will 
stand unmoved through all time, and thus per- 
petuate the memory of its most noble founder, 
while it is at the same time to accomplish its 
purpose and fulfil its mission to the world. 

FroebeFs Law of Contrasts and their Con- 
nections is the fundamental principle of the 
secret power of his system. 

He argued that Kindergarten did just Avhat 



150 The MotlierH and Kindergaytner s Friend. 

neither the home nor the primary school can 
do for the child ; and we would say in this con- 
nection that we think the Austrian government 
compels parents to send all their children under 
six years of age to the Kindergarten. The 
idea expressed by Froebel was, that the more 
deeply we bind ourselves to nature, so much 
the more adorned she gives everything back, 
and that the Kindergarten should be capable of 
character-forms and character-building, by the 
sincere study of nature. 

His system is this living germ which requires 
"the fresh ploughed, unworn soil, and all the en- 
livening influences of the American nationality, 
in its pristine vigor," to be exercised in causing 
it to grow and become as a shady tree beneath 
whose branches the weary may rest and be 
protected from the scorching rays of the sun. 

Tlenr}^ Barnard, LL.D., Commissioner of Edu- 
cation for the State of Connecticut, in a letter 
to the President of tlie American Froebel Union, 
saj's, ^'that the suggestion (in his special report 
to tlie Legislature) 'that the first or lowest 
scliool in a graded system for cities should 
cover the play-period of a child's life, and that 



Facts in Relation to FroebeL 151 

the great formative period of the human being's 
life, in all that concerns habits of observation 
and early development, should be subjected to 
the training of the Kindergarten' must be re- 
ceived now under at least the conditions of the 
recommendation." 

Mr. and Mrs. Kraus say, " Froebel's system 
consists in so arranging the gifts and occupa- 
tions as to encourage and enable the child to 
transfer and re-combine the material, and thus 
strengthen by exercise his bodily and mental 
faculties. Individuality is thus developed. 
He gives explanations how to conduct their 
games. To know them all is quite a study; 
to apply them well, an art ; to understand their 
full significance, a science. 

" No one can master all these details without 
deep study, much observation, and thoughtful 
practice. 

" And when mastered, the Kindergartner de- 
serves a rank and remuneration not now ac- 
corded to her." 



152 The Mother^ s and Kindergartner's Friend. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

KINDERGARTEN. 

BY HAKVEY CAKPENTEK. 

A SYSTEM of instruction fraught 
With benefits untold, 
Is Kindergarten, dearer far 
Than mines of precious gold. 

Though founded on Germania's soil, 

By one of humble name. 
His deeds — to-day so widely known - 

Give him undying fame. 

His method of child-culture rests 
On laws the most profound ; 

A basis firm as there can be 
In art or science found. 

While nature's works exist and move 

By universal law. 
The Kindergarten has results 

Like nature's — with no flaw. 



Kindergarten. 163 

The farmer o'er his fertile fields 

Strews well selected seed ; 
While Froebel plants the mental soil 

With germs of truth indeed. 

The former springs to life and bloom 

Beneath the sun and shower; 
The latter give increasing strength 

To every mental power. 

His training leads the children well 

In ways of pleasantness, 
And turns their little feet to paths 

Of peace and righteousness. 

Such culture makea their minds arouse, 

Their powers to well expand, 
And thus with ease and strength to grasp 

At future thino:s more o^rand. 



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MODERN ORNAMENTER AND INTERIOR DECORATOR. — By 
A. P. Boyce. 4to., 22 plain and colored plates, cloth, $3.50. 

THE WARDSHIPS AND NAVIES OF THE WORLD.— By Chief 

F^ngineer J. W. King, U. S. Navy, i vol. 8vo., 500 pages, 64 full-page 
illustrations, $7.00. 

ANCIENT LANDMARKS OF PLYMOUTH.— By William T.Davis. 

8vo. cloth, 662 pages, with 3 maps, $4.00. 

RALPH WALDO EMERSON. — An estimate of his character and genius 
in prose and verse, with portraits and illustrations. By A. Bronson 
Alcott. 1 vol., small 4to., $3.00. 

THE MODERN HOUSE CARPENTER'S COMPANION AND 
BUILDER'S GUIDE. — By W. A. Sylvester. 45 full-page plates. 

l2mo. $1.75. 



THE BOSTON ART EXHIBITION CATALOGUE. 

The Art Catalogue of the New England Manufacturers' and Mechanics* Insti> 

tute. Illustrated with many etching's, albertypes, wood engravings, etc. 
I vol. 4to. In wrapper, with elastic band, $4.00; or in white vellum clotli, 
full gilt sides, in box, $5.00. 
The price of this magnificent de luxe production has now been raised frr)m 
three dollars to four dollars, and the publishers reserve to themselves the 
right to still further increase the price after a certain number of copies have 
been sold. // cannot he reproduced. 

FROM MADGE TO MARGARET. 

By Carroll Winchester. 
i2mo. Cloth. $1.25. 
A handsome new edition of an old favorite, uniform with " The Love of 
a Lifetime." 

THE LOVE or A LIFETIME. 

By the author of ** From Madge to Margaret.'* 
i2mo. Cloth. $1.50. 
A new companion volume in form to the above, in which the authoi sus- 
tains the reputation she has acquired by her high gills in the delineation of 
character and fiction-writing. One of the most striking and refined of 
modern novels. 

HINTS TO YOUNG MEN ON THE TRUE RELA- 
TION OF THE SEXES. 

By John Ware, M.D. 
I vol. i6mo. 75 cents. 

A real guide to young men in conduct and character. The author, a dis- 
tinguished medical man, has devoted his knowledge and given deep atten- 
tion to subjects that concern alike young men and general society, and the 
work must have great influence on social life and morals, 

THE BUSINESS MAN'S ASSISTANT. 

By I. R. Butts. 

I vol. x2mo. 130 pages. Leatherette, $1.00. Paper, 50 cents. 

This book will be found of great value and convenience in commercial and 

trade circles. It gives the business man just that information on tlie Laws, 

Contracts, and the many problems of Trade, that he may require at any mo- 

ment, and without a book of tliis kind at hand may be put to much trouble 

and expense. 

SPANISH WAYS AND BY-WAYS. 

By William Howe Downes. 
Illustrated with upwards of fifty engravings, drawn by Henuy LandhaNi, 

Makcus Waterman, A. H. Bicknell, and W. P. Bodfish. i vol. Svo. 

I S2 pages. Price ^, 1.50. 

Not eveiy traveller has the gift of authorship. Mr. Downes, however, is 
an exceptional instance of one who has great powers of observation and 
highly-cultured tastes, and who can at the same time describe to others what 
he has seen with precision, and by his brilliant writing transport his readers 



to the very scenes of which he tells, kindling in their minds emotions akin 
to those that the history, art, and cities of Spain have awakened in his own. 
The volume must be a favorite with all lovers of books of travel. The illus- 
trations are finely executed. There is not a dull page in the book. 

PRIEST AND MAN; OR, ABELARD AND 
HELOISA. 

By Wm. WlLBERFORCE NeWTON. • 

An Historical Romance. 

Illustrated. 507 pages. i2mo. $1.50. 

A pathetic and accurate presentation of the facts that encircle in sadness 

and tragedy the lives of two beings whose history has ever been a fascinating 

study to the thoughtful student. Third Edition^ hound in a new and at- 

tractive style, noTV ready, 

THE STORY OF IDA. 

By Frances Alexander, with frontispiece. Introduction by John 

RUSKIN. 

Fifth American Edition. i6mo. Cloth, 75 cents; or in full, smooth Russian 
calf, gilt edges, in box, $3.00. 
A patlietic and thrilling stoiy of a sweet girl's life and death, in which, 
according to Ruskin, we may find more of the essence and spirit of Christi- 
anity than in a hundred creeds and controversies. The story of such a life, 
once told as this is, can never be forgotten ; it raises Ida into the sphere of 
the immortals, who, tliough unseen, still live in our hearts and homes. 

MEMOIR OF CHARLES LOWE. 

By his wife, Martha Perry Lowe. 
I vol. 4S0 pages. i2mo. $1.75. 
A memoir of great interest to all Liberal Churchmen. Mr. Lowe was a 
well-known and highly esteemed leader in the Unitarian Church, and his 
influence was felt far and wide. Both as a Pastor and in the office of Secre- 
tary of the American Unitarian Association he proved himself to be a man 
of rare gifts. His observations during his European tour are especially 
worthy of attention. Every Unitarian and Liberal Christian will be gratified 
by this charming memoir of a noble man. 

WHENCE, WHAT, WHERE? 

By J. R. Nichols, M.D. 

Cloth, $1.00. Paper, 50 cents. 
A remarkable treatise, rich in thought, eloquent in langTiage, and power- 
ful in appeal. Five editions have been exhausted, and the sixth is now ready. 

STORY OF THEODORE PARKER. 

By Frances E. Cooke. With an Introduction by Grace A. Oliver. 

(Lives of the Great and Good, edited by Grace A. Oliver.) 

Cloth, $1.00. 

A charming account for young people of the events of Theodore Parker's 

life. Supplemented by an introduction of more than fifty pages by Grace A. 

Oliver, giving a resume of the various " lives '* that have been written of this 

great leader and preacher, with many appreciative extracts. The first volume 

of a new biographical series for the young. 



liOVE POEMS AND SONNETS. 

By Owen Innsly. 

l6mo. Clotli, artistically and eleirantiy bound, $i.oo. Smooth Russian calf, 

in box, $3.00. Third Edition. 

A rare book, full of exalted ideas, profound feeling-, and deep sentiment. 

The writer deserves a place on ail shelves amongst the lyric poets of this 

and other ages. Copies in parchment covers ca7i no lotiger be supplied. 

LEGENDS, LYRICS, AND SONNETS. 
By Frances L. Mace. 
i6mo. Cloth. $1.25. 
There are so-called poets arising by the tliousand in tnis age whose ver- 
bosity only hides common-places. The author of this volume, many of 
^vhose productions have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly and other peri- 
odicals, however, cannot be classed with these; she has genius, if not of the 
highest order, still genius rich in thought and the pow^er of expression. She 
has sought the Pluses, and they have rewarded her pains and prayers. 
Amongst modern books of legendary and lyricai poetry this should find a 
permanent place. 

STRAY CHORDS. 

By Julia R. Anagnos. 

i6mo. Cloth. $1.25. 
These poems are expressive of various subjects, moods, and sentiments, 
and so in form have no unity, yet every lover of poetry will discover a unity 
deeper tJian any similarity of form could make it, — a unity of thought, idea, 
and poetic insight. The writer, who is the daughter of Julia Ward Howe, a 
famous songstress, sings because she must, and, after one glance at the book, 
the reader reads because he must. 

PATRICE : Her Love and Work. 

A poem in four parts. i2mo. Cloth. $1.50. 
By Edward F. Hayward, author of " Willoughby," " Ecce Spiritus," etc. 
Quoting on the title-page Emerson's saying: " Sooner or later, that 
which is now life shall be poetry," the author gives us the key-note of his 
work. It is no mere creation of the poet's imagination that we are introduced 
to, but to a woman's life, rendered sacred by devotion to duty and ennobled 
by strong affection. A true character is in itself a poem, but many fail to 
see it till they look upon it as they do here, in fine analysis and delicate out- 
line, under the clear light of a poet's thought and feeling. 

CUPPLES, UPHAM & CO.'S POPULAR 
TWELVEMOS IN PAPER COVERS. 

Handsomely printed on fine paper, and uniformly bound in terra-cotta, with 
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Cape Cod Folks. Twenty-second thousand. 

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Whence, "What, Where ? Seventh thousand. 

Business Man's Assistant. Ninetieth thousand. 



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